Deception

by K. A. Robinson

  God, this hurts.

  No matter how many times I’d tried to protect myself against Cooper, he’d somehow weaseled his way into my heart. Knowing that he didn’t give a damn was the equivalent of someone driving a knife into my chest.

  I wiped my eyes once my tears had disappeared. I stood and walked to the bathroom to splash my face with ice-cold water. Robert couldn’t know that I’d been crying. He couldn’t know how stupid I’d been.

  When I returned to our room, it was still empty. I shed my clothes and pulled on a pair of pajamas before climbing into bed and curling up into a ball. It was barely past seven, but I didn’t care. This day had worn on me until I was too emotionally drained to continue on.

  Just as I was drifting off to sleep, I heard Robert walk into the room and close the door behind him. I ignored him as I willed my body to fall back into slumber. Whatever he had to say could wait until tomorrow.

  “Claire, wake up,” Robert whispered as he climbed into bed with me.

  I ignored him.

  “Claire, come on. Wake up.”

  I groaned as he gently nudged me.

  “What?”

  “Are you okay? I’m sorry for what Cooper said. He’ll do anything, say anything, just to hurt me. Unfortunately, he used my affection for you to do it this time.”

  I rolled over to face him. “It doesn’t matter what Cooper said. As long as you truly love me, that’s all I need.”

  He smiled. “Good. Now that I have you, I can’t imagine my life without you. I’m sorry that I arranged everything for tomorrow without talking to you first. If you want, I’ll cancel our appointment. We don’t have to get married until you’re ready.”

  I stared at him, uncertainty flooding me. As I studied his beautiful face, I forced my doubts away. Robert had been my rock for so long, long before Cooper had come around to mess with my head. I realized that most of my uncertainty with Robert came from seeds of doubt that Cooper had planted in my mind. Yes, Robert could be a bit controlling, but he didn’t do it to hurt me. He did it because he cared about me. He loved me.

  “No, I don’t want to wait,” I said quietly. “You’re right. There’s no reason to wait. I’ll gladly be yours.”

  Robert grinned. “I’m so glad you’re saying yes. I thought for sure that you’d tell me you wanted to wait.”

  “I’m sorry that I made you doubt us. You’ve done nothing but love me since the moment we met. I’d be stupid to let someone like you slip away.”

  He leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine. I threw my arms around him as I gave everything I had to our kiss. I ignored the fact that I didn’t feel any of the sparks I’d felt when Cooper kissed me. Everything about Cooper had been a lie, from his words to his actions, but this was real. Robert was real.

  Robert groaned into my mouth as he pulled me tighter against him. Before I knew it, our clothes had disappeared.

  Robert had left early this morning. He’d stumbled out the door, mumbling something about keeping tradition, as he had put his hand over his eyes. Apparently, it was bad luck for the bride and groom to see each other on their wedding day.

  As soon as he’d left, Ellie came barreling through the door. I yelped in shock since I was still naked, but she only laughed as she walked to the closet.

  “Go shower,” she called from the closet.

  I kept the sheet around me as I grabbed some clothes out of the dresser, and I hurried to the bathroom. After a quick shower, I returned to my room to see a white sundress lying on the bed. A pair of white sandals sat on the floor in front of the bed.

  “Let’s make you beautiful.” Ellie smiled at me.

  She dragged me back to the bathroom and forced me to stand still as she curled my hair. Then, she pulled part of it back into an intricate twist that I knew I’d never be able to do. She finished it off with enough hairspray to choke me.

  Once my hair was finished, she moved on to my makeup. I closed my eyes as she ran liner under and over my eyes. Eye shadow and mascara followed. Once that was done, she applied foundation and blush. With a light pink lipstick, my lips were next.

  She refused to let me look in the mirror until I was dressed. She dug through my underwear drawer and found a pair of light-blue panties. I laughed at her choice of something blue. I took off what I was wearing and pulled them on. Next, I pulled on the dress and then my white sandals.

  “There. Done,” I said excitedly.

  “Not quite.” She took something out of her pocket. It was a necklace made of pearls. “You have something blue, your shoes will be something new, and this is your something borrowed.”

  “Thank you, Ellie,” I said.

  She clasped the necklace and let it drop around my neck. “You look beautiful. Go look at yourself.”

  I walked to the full-length mirror and gasped in shock as I stared at myself. I looked good, thanks to Ellie. The woman looking back at me didn’t look anything like me. She was sophisticated and gorgeous. Her hair and makeup were perfect. The dress fit in a way that flattered her.

  “Wow,” was all I could manage to get out.

  “I told you that you looked beautiful. I need to run home to change, but I’ll be back in just a few minutes. Then, I’ll drive you to the courthouse,” Ellie said as she squeezed my arm.

  I pulled her into a hug, shocking both of us. Ellie was the closest thing to a mother that I’d ever had.

  “Thank you…for everything,” I said as I released her.

  “You’re welcome, honey. I’ll be right back.” She slipped out of my room and closed the door behind her.

  I stood in front of the mirror for a few more minutes before finally looking away. I took a deep breath to calm myself as I looked at the clock. It was almost eight. In an hour, I’d be saying my vows to Robert. I would become his wife. The thought terrified and excited me at the same time.

  Once I realized that my heart wasn’t going to stop hammering away in my chest, I gave up on trying to be calm. I took another deep breath before opening my bedroom door and stepping out. I walked down the hallway and then down the stairs. Once I was in the living room, I sat on the couch and stared at the far wall.

  I was so lost in my own head that I didn’t notice when Cooper stepped into the room. In fact, I didn’t notice him at all until he stopped in front of me, blocking my view of the wall. My eyes widened in shock as I looked up at him.

  “Claire…” he said, his voice hushed.

  I tried to smile, but after hearing his words the night before, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

  “Cooper.”

  He sighed. “Claire, I—”

  “Don’t.” I held up a hand. “I don’t want to fight with you today, Coop. It’s my wedding day, and I refuse to let anyone ruin it for me.”

  His nostrils flared in anger. “Ruin it? No, we wouldn’t want that. It looks like you found your happily ever after, didn’t you? Lucky girl.”

  “Yes, it looks like I did.” I defiantly stared up at him.

  “At least for now. Soon enough, I’m sure you’ll realize the error of your ways.”

  It was my turn to be angry. “Just stop. I refuse to listen to anything else you have to say. Since the day I met you, all you’ve done is confuse and hurt me. You don’t give a damn about me, do you? The only reason you were nice to me was because you wanted me to trust you, and it almost worked, Cooper. You should be proud of yourself for fooling this stupid, naive little girl.”

  “You think I’m the one trying to fool you? Seriously? You’re more of a fool than I thought. Everything I did, everything I told you, was to help you. You have no idea who my father is!”

  I laughed. “Really? And I know who you are?”

  “I’ve never lied to you, Claire. Never.”

  “Bull!” I shouted. “Everything you told me was a lie. The way you touched me was a lie, too. You only wanted to hurt your father, and you tried to use me to do it.”

  I yelped when he yanked me up by my arm. It didn
’t hurt, but it was still shocking to be sitting one minute and standing inches away from Cooper the next.

  “I tried to protect you, but you refused to listen to me. I do care about you, Claire, or I never would have tried to intervene.” He paused, trying to compose himself. “And when I touched you? That wasn’t a lie either. I’ve never wanted a woman the way I want you. You’re beautiful inside and out, and I want you to be mine.”

  I stared up at him in shock.

  “There are things you don’t know about my father, things that would terrify you. All I wanted was to get you away from him. He will destroy you, Claire. He’ll break you until nothing is left.”

  “You’re lying,” I said, but my voice held none of the anger from before.

  Why is he doing this to me? How can he put doubt into my mind every time I look at him?

  “Am I?” He raised an eyebrow. “I’m not a good man, and I’ve never claimed to be, but next to him, I’m a fucking saint.”

  “Let me go, Cooper. Ellie will be here any minute,” I finally said.

  He shook his head. “I’ve let you go enough times.”

  He jerked me against him and kissed me like he was starving. I gasped in shock as I tried to push away from him. He held me tighter as his tongue surged into my mouth, igniting fire inside me. I finally stopped fighting and wrapped my arms around his neck. He groaned as his hands roamed over my body, finally stopping on my ass. He squeezed my ass, causing me to moan into his mouth. The kiss seemed to go on forever before he finally pulled away.

  “Tell me that’s a lie, Claire. Tell me that you feel nothing when I kiss you.”

  I looked away from him, shame covering me like a cloud.

  “That’s what I thought. Leave with me right now. I’ll protect you, Claire. I swear, I will. Just please don’t marry him.”

  “Ellie will be here any moment,” I finally said as I untangled myself from him. I sidestepped to escape him, and I headed for the door. My mind was a mess.

  “So, that’s it?” he called out from behind me.

  I stopped and turned to look at him again. It took everything in me not to run into his arms even though I did think he was crazy. No matter how much I disliked him for hurting me, the magnetism I felt toward Cooper would always be there.

  “That’s it.” I continued on toward the door.

  “My father had my mother killed.”

  His words chilled me to the bone.

  I stopped dead and turned back to him. “What did you say?”

  “You heard me, Claire. I’ve spent the last year living with a man I hated because I have to. I have watched his every move, waiting for him to slip up. My mother was going to leave him, and he found out about it. She knew far too much about the things he’s done to get where he is today for him to let her go, so he had her killed.”

  “And where’s your proof?” I asked, barely breathing. This was it—the thing he’d been trying to hide from me all this time.

  He looked away. “I have nothing concrete. All I know is that two days before she died, he withdrew fifty thousand dollars from one of his accounts. A month after her death, I received a letter from a lawyer in Virginia. He was going to represent my mother in the divorce. It was smart of her to contact someone from out of state since my dad has every lawyer in the area in his pocket. She gave the lawyer a letter to give to me in case anything ever happened to her. She said that if something happened to her, she wanted me to know why. She told me to get as far away from my father as I could because he’d hurt me, too, if he got the chance. But I couldn’t. I can’t just walk away when he’s still out there, living his life, while my mother is in the ground. That’s why I still have my private investigator on his tail. My father is bound to slip up at some point, and when he does, I’ll have all the proof I need.”

  I stared at him, openmouthed. “You’re lying.”

  “I wish I were. Do you really think I’d be here if I didn’t have to be? I hated him before, Claire, but after I found out the truth, I felt such a burning rage inside me that I wanted to literally kill him. It took everything in me to keep from taking his life. My father isn’t a good man. I’ve tried to tell you that over and over, but you’ve refused to listen. Now, you’re in as deep as I am in all of this. He won’t hesitate to hurt you, too, if you step out of line.”

  My heart raced as I tried to process what he had told me. He thought Robert was a killer. This is insane. Cooper is insane.

  “Besides a letter and a bank withdrawal, you have no proof that Robert did anything wrong,” I mumbled. “You can’t really expect me to believe this.”

  Cooper glared at me. “I wouldn’t lie about something like this, Claire!”

  “Yes, you would! You’ve tried to come at me from all angles, hoping to tear my relationship with Robert apart. And now this? You’ve lost your mind, Cooper. Your hate for your father has literally driven you insane!”

  He stalked across the room, and I shrank back, suddenly terrified of him. I had absolutely no idea what he was capable of at this point. I remembered my first assessment of him. With his tattoos, piercing, and nasty attitude, he screamed bad boy. Now, with him suddenly only a foot away from me, that thought came back tenfold. No, he wasn’t a bad boy. He was dangerous and insane.

  “I’m trying to protect you, Claire. Goddamn it!” He ran his hands through his hair.

  I’d never seen him like this. Cooper was always calm and in control, but now, he looked crazy.

  “I don’t need your protection. Stay away from me,” I said as I crept backward. I reached behind me and found the doorknob.

  “You know what? I don’t even fucking care anymore. Go and marry him, but don’t you dare expect me to help you when you see the monster lurking just under the surface. I’m tired of trying to save someone who can’t be helped.”

  “I would never ask for your help,” I spit out.

  He grinned, but it was cold and almost lifeless. “Run along then. Be Robert’s little whore.”

  For the second time in my life, I slapped someone. It was ironic that it was the same person as before.

  He jerked back, shocked at what I’d just done. I took the opportunity to throw open the door. I ran outside, not daring to look back. I saw Ellie’s car parked in the driveway, and I nearly cried in relief as I ran to it.

  She gave me a bewildered look as I all but jumped into her car.

  “Claire, what’s wrong?” she asked.

  I shook my head. “Nothing. Just drive.”

  I looked back one final time. Cooper was standing in the doorway, staring at the car. I fought tears as we drove away.

  I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself as I felt the car driving toward the courthouse, to my wedding, and away from Cooper and his crazy thoughts. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was running from a hurricane and straight into the path of a tornado.

  God help me, how did my life come to this?

  Deception, Book Two

  Coming Early 2015

  FOR THE LATEST UPDATES ON NEW RELEASES, GIVEAWAYS, SALES, AND TEASERS, PLEASE JOIN K.A. ROBINSON’S MAILING LIST: HTTP://BIT.LY/18EC6X7

  Tamed Teaser

  Coming November 4, 2014

  Prologue

  I hated the word whore. It sounded so…filthy. I’d been called a hundred different names before—slut, skank, ho, bitch, just to name a few—but when someone called me a whore, it would set my blood on fire.

  As I stared down at my fate, I realized that they’d all been right. I was a whore.

  There was no coming back from this.

  I closed my eyes and willed myself not to cry. I’d done this to myself. This was what I deserved.

  I hadn’t always been this way. Once, a really long time ago, I’d been innocent. I’d worn my heart on my sleeve. I’d looked at every day like it was a gift instead of the plague that it really was.

  Life was so damn hard. I hated it. I’d hated it for years. More than once, I’d wished that I hadn’t h
ad to deal with it, that I hadn’t had to deal with him. But fate had laughed at me, repeatedly throwing him in my face just when I thought I’d healed.

  How could I tell him this when he seemed to hate me more and more every time we saw each other? How could I tell him this after what she’d done? I was no better than her.

  What was once innocent love and attraction had morphed into something…volatile and ugly. By now, it was almost unrecognizable.

  Who am I kidding?

  It had never been innocent. We’d seemed to be incapable of innocence, especially him.

  I would never survive this. The moment I’d seen him, even though I hadn’t wanted to admit it, I’d known that I would never survive him.

  Tears fell down my cheeks, but I brushed them away as I stood and walked out of the room. When I reached my bedroom, I picked up my cell phone and dialed the only person I knew I could trust, the only person who knew every secret of mine—my best friend.

  “Hey, Amber. What’s up?”

  “Chloe, I need you,” I whispered.

  Chapter One

  Four Years Earlier—May

  Charleston, West Virginia

  I ran a brush through my dark brown hair and looked in the rearview mirror, making sure that my makeup was still flawless. Bright green eyes stared back at me, outlined perfectly with black eyeliner. My tanned skin was practically glowing from happiness. I smiled to myself as I adjusted my low-cut tank top so that it revealed even more of my cleavage. I climbed from my car and tugged on my shorts, inching them up my legs bit by bit.

  I’d fought with myself for almost an hour as I debated on what to wear to surprise Chad, my boyfriend for the past year. Today felt special for some reason. I wasn’t sure why, but it did, and I wanted to look perfect.

  Along with my two best friends, Logan and Chloe, Chad and I had graduated from high school just last week. We only had two months to spend together before we would head off for West Virginia University in the fall. He’d be there with me, but I knew things wouldn’t be the same, so I wanted to make sure that this would be a summer he’d remember.