I should’ve been freaked out. Watching Deacon go all caveman should’ve pissed me right the hell off.
So why was it that instead of being angry, I was more turned on than I’d ever been in my life?
Pushing that thought from my mind, I planted my hands on my hips, throwing out as much attitude as I could possibly muster, and demanded, “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” he gritted. “And another thing, that bullshit blind date your girls made up? That’s not happening. So you might as well go ahead and get them off whatever mission they’re on to find you a man, because as of Thursday night, you already have one.”
My jaw dropped, and I was pretty sure my brain just exploded all over the place.
Chapter Twelve
Deacon
“He’s not made up!” she lied. “And I’m so going on that date, if for no other reason than you just pissed me off!”
Christ, even when she was lying through her teeth and making me so damn mad I thought my head might explode, she was still the sexiest woman I’d ever laid eyes on.
Putting my hands on my hips, I leaned across her desk. “The hell you will.”
There were very few times in my life that I’d witnessed Fiona’s anger. She’d always been sweet and mild-tempered, but that hadn’t meant there wasn’t a fire inside of her. When that redhead fury surfaced, it threatened to blow apart everything and everyone in its path. And from the look on her face, she was about to explode.
“I’m sorry,” she started softly, but it wasn’t her usual kind of soft. It was a soft that led up to a detonation. “But have you lost your goddamn mind?” she screamed, her temper flaring right on schedule. “Who the hell do you think you are? You can’t tell me who I can or can’t date! Especially considering the fact that you’re the one with a girlfriend!”
“And if you’d have stuck around long enough to have fucking listened, you’d have found out that I broke up with Leah days before I had you on my pool table!”
It was a damn good thing her offices had closed down for the night because we were making one hell of a scene, yelling the room down.
She continued to shout. “Well you should have—wait, what?”
“That’s right. I broke up with Leah before anything happened between me and you. Christ, woman,” I bit out, yanking my fingers through my hair. “Did you really think I’d do that to you? To another woman? You really think that goddamn low of me?”
“I….” She shook her head as if trying to clear it. Her brows dipped in the middle, showing just how upset my insinuation made her. “No,” she whispered hoarsely. “God, Deacon, of course not. How could you ask me that?”
Fuck, she made it damn near impossible to stay mad when she looked at me like that.
“My freak-out wasn’t about you,” she continued, slaying me. “It was about me. I’ve already hurt you too many times, and when I thought I’d been responsible for doing it again, I just….”
I couldn’t handle the space between us for another second. Rounding the desk, I wrapped my fingers around her arm and pulled her against me. My other hand came up to tilt her chin so I could look into her eyes. “I wish you’d stuck around so I could explain,” I said, the anger disappearing from my voice. “You’ve spent the past several days beating yourself up for no damn reason. You didn’t do anything wrong… except run away. Leah wasn’t even in the picture.”
I was so close I could hear and feel the way her chest stuttered on an inhale. Her voice was so hushed I almost couldn’t hear it. “Why did you break up? I thought you said she made you happy.”
The last thing I wanted to do was discuss an ex-girlfriend with the woman I’d spent my whole life wanting. But I could see it in her eyes, even though we were so close physically, she was still using Leah to keep herself at a distance. If I let her, she’d probably shoot out of the room so fast my head would spin. Unwilling to let that happen, I tightened my hold on her and answered, “It was never going to work out between us. I just didn’t feel for her the way a man should feel about the woman he’s dating.”
Her body began to loosen, but then something else sparked across her face, making her go stiff as a board. “What was she talking about when she said ‘So much for nothing ever happening between you and Fiona’?”
Shit. “Fiona—”
“Tell me, Deacon,” she demanded, her words clipped. “What was she talking about?”
I could feel her attempting to rebuild those walls she kept around herself in order to keep me out. “She threw you in my face when I ended it, saying it was because of you that she didn’t stand a chance.”
Fiona’s forehead wrinkled in confusion for just a second before the pieces finally began to fall into place. “And you told her nothing was ever going to happen between us.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement, and each word out of her mouth dripped with the same pain that mirrored her expression. Seeing and hearing how that hurt her was like a sledgehammer right to the gut.
“Fee—”
A bitter laugh burst from her throat, and she began struggling against my hold. “Wow. You must’ve been just as surprised as Leah by what happened, then, huh?”
“Christ, Fiona. Will you just—”
“Or was that some sick way of getting back at me?”
It was my turn to go stiff. My blood went from a simmer to a rolling boil in half a second. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I whispered, letting Fiona go and taking a step back. “You think I fucked you to get back at you?”
She flinched like I just slapped her, but I couldn’t find it in me to feel guilty, not just then.
That goddamned wall kept going up, brick by brick. “I…. No.” She stepped away, raking her hands through that long, gorgeous, fiery hair, and began pacing agitatedly. “God, what are we doing here, Deacon?”
It wasn’t until that very moment that I realized what she was wearing. I’d torn in there, so hell-bent on laying into her that I hadn’t stopped to notice her dress. Skintight ivory that hugged her from shoulders to mid-thigh. It was sleeveless with a high neckline that didn’t show a hint of cleavage, but the way it conformed to her body was sinful. And that was just the front. When she stomped away, mid-pace, and I caught sight of the slit that led dangerously close to where the material hugged her pert, round ass, I nearly came in my pants. And that wasn’t to mention her stockings. From the front they just looked like a regular pair of stockings, but the back… Christ. They had a seam that ran from her fuck-me stilettos all the way up, disappearing beneath the short hemline of her skirt. They were the kind of stockings that made every man want to follow their trail to find out what treasure they led to.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” I grunted, all the blood in my body traveling straight to my dick. “What the hell are you wearing?”
She stopped moving and spun to face me, her hands propped on her hips. “What?”
“You wear shit like that every day?”
Her eyes scanned down her body before returning to mine. “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”
“It’s indecent! Shit, Fee. You prance around in dresses like that every day, it’s a wonder your male staff gets anything done!”
That redheaded fury of hers reared its head again, and damn if it didn’t turn me on just as much as that dress. “And what the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means,” I started slowly, my own anger and frustration on par with hers, “that most of the dudes in your office probably spend their lunch hour and every break before and after jacking off to the image of your ass in skirts like that because they’re burned into their brains!”
She sucked in an affronted gasp before blowing her top. “You’re such a pig!”
“That may be, baby, but I’m also a man currently sporting a hard-on strong enough to pound nails because of that goddamn dress.”
She crossed her arms over her chest in indignation and continued to go toe-to-toe with me. “I’ll have you know that this dress was
part of our summer line last year, and it’s perfectly respectable.”
I let out a snort of disbelief even as my cock grew harder. “Perfectly respectable? So you’re telling me it’s perfectly respectable for me to know, just by looking at you, that you aren’t wearing any goddamn panties right now?”
Her arms shot to her sides and her hands balled into tiny little fists that, had the blood flow to my brain not been diverted, I would’ve found adorable.
“I’m wearing panties!” she shrieked.
I don’t know what came over me at that very second, but I suddenly lost all control and pounced.
I tagged her around the waist with one arm and pinned her to me, front to front, and used my other arm to swipe everything off her desk.
“Deacon! That’s my—”
She didn’t get another word out, because the next second my mouth was on hers. Fiona’s lips parted on a startled gasp and I drove my tongue inside, desperate for a taste. The moment I gained entrance, she melted, and I knew I had her.
The kiss wasn’t soft or sweet. It was demanding, almost punishing. It was brutal and hot, and I couldn’t bring myself to slow down even if I’d wanted to.
One of my hands traveled to her hair, tangling the mass in my fingers, while the other moved down over that luscious ass. I yanked the dress up to her hips and moaned into her mouth when I discovered that she wasn’t lying. She was wearing panties—if that was what you’d call the miniscule scrap of soaking wet fabric. But it wasn’t only the underwear that had my dick threatening to bust through my zipper at any moment. Oh no, it was also the lacy tops of those stockings. Goddamned thigh-highs. Fuck me.
“Shit,” I wrenched my mouth away to get a better look, then groaned long and loud. That dress was nothing compared to what was beneath. Nothing.
“Lie back,” I ordered. “Hands over your head. Grip the edge of the desk, baby. I can’t be gentle right now.”
Her chest rose and fell as she followed my instructions, stretching her perfect body out for my viewing pleasure.
“Deacon, please,” she started to beg. It was almost enough to send me over the edge. I reached for my fly and was seconds away from freeing my throbbing cock when the elevator down the hall suddenly dinged and the sound of muffled music filled the air.
“Shit,” Fiona hissed, tipping her head back toward the door. “The cleaning crew.”
I wanted to cuss out the people who’d just unwittingly interrupted us, but with the time it allowed me to get myself under control, I realized it was actually a blessing in disguise.
Grabbing her hips, I pulled Fiona from the desk and held on until she was steady on her feet. Then I worked her skirt back down to cover the beauty I’d just discovered, and ordered, “Get your shit. We’re going.”
“What?” She stumbled on her heels but still managed to grab her phone and her purse as she asked, “Where?”
“My place.” I took her hand in mine and started pulling her to the door.
“But Deacon. My car—”
I stopped and turned so quickly that she collided with me. “I’ll bring you back tomorrow, but tonight you’re coming home with me. I’m going to fuck you until you can’t move. Then we’re going to talk. This shit between us gets straightened out. Tonight.”
She sucked in a massive breath, but I wasn’t finished.
“And Fee, just warning you now. If you try and run again, I’m tying your ass to my bed for as long as it takes. We clear?”
She didn’t say a word, just nodded as her throat worked on a thick swallow.
Chapter Thirteen
Fiona
“Yes!” My head flew back on a loud moan as one of my hands moved from the mattress to the headboard to brace against Deacon’s brutal thrusts.
His fingers dug into my hips as he continued driving into me from behind. My orgasm washed over me just as Deacon’s hips lost their rhythm and he started pounding into me so hard that I shouted his name as I came.
In the next breath, Deacon buried himself deep and groaned, his fingertips pressing in so hard I wondered if I’d have bruises the next day. He wasn’t wrong. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to walk for at least twenty-four hours.
I fell to my belly with Deacon following me down. His heat stayed at my back as he twisted and pulled me to my side so we were spooning. I was still coming down from the highest high I’d ever experienced, so I hadn’t properly guarded myself for my and Deacon’s upcoming “talk.” In fact, I’d been so wrapped up in what was happening that it had completely slipped my mind.
Until Deacon’s lips brushed against the bare skin of my shoulder and his husky voice whispered in my ear, “We need to talk.” My happy little bubble popped, bringing me back to the real world where things were uncertain and shaky. Feeling my body tense against his, Deacon’s arm around my waist gave me a squeeze. “Relax,” he whispered. The feel of his strong, warm frame and the gentle wisp of his breath along my skin sent a yummy tremble up my back.
I lost his heat, but only for as long as it took him to press his hand into my belly and roll me to my back so he could hover over me. Deacon stared down at me with sleepy, sex-drunk eyes that stole my breath. It was a look I’d never seen on him before, and knowing that this gorgeous man appeared so thoroughly and properly mussed because of me sent a new rush of arousal flooding between my legs.
Now that I’d experienced him like this, all warm and sated, I didn’t think I could ever go back to what we had before. And just the thought of having to do that tore at my heart.
“What’s running through that mind of yours?” Deacon asked, pulling me out of my head.
“Nothing,” I said on a whisper, unsure of what to say or do. It seemed like everything that came out of my mouth was wrong and started a fight. Granted, those fights inevitably led to exquisite sex, but that wasn’t something a relationship could be built on.
He continued to speak softly, even if his words packed a punch. “Bullshit. I just made you come so hard you damn near passed out, but somehow you’re still managing to twist shit up in your head.”
“I’m not twisting anything,” I clipped with a glare. “You said we needed to talk, so talk.”
He pressed more of his weight down on me. “First, tell me what you’re thinking. Baby, this isn’t going to work if we aren’t honest with each other.”
That sentence worked wonders to deflate my simmering anger. “And what exactly is this?” I asked hesitantly.
Deacon’s chin jerked back at the same time his forehead creased in a frown. “Are you serious?”
Uh-oh. Once again, I’d said the wrong thing.
“Jesus, Fee. You’re lying naked in my fucking bed right now. I just had my dick buried so deep inside you that I wasn’t sure where I ended and you began, and you have to ask that?”
My belly twisted into a painful knot as he reared back, as if to pull away. I didn’t know what came over me in that second, but the idea of him pulling away spurred me into action.
Placing my hands on his cheeks, I started speaking quickly. “Please don’t. Don’t pull away. Just give me a second to explain.” When he remained motionless and silent, I continued. “I’m terrified, Deacon, because I keep screwing this up, and I don’t know how to stop. I know you think I should get what’s happening between us, but I’m going to need you to spell it out for me. Not because I’m twisting shit in my head, but because I want to stop screwing this up. I don’t know how to take us from where we were to whatever we are now, because our relationship hasn’t exactly been stable the past several years. I get that I’m the one who did that to us, and it’s up to me to fix it. I want to do that, Deac, but I need you to cut me a little slack, okay? I’m just trying to find my footing, and I need you to help me do that.”
His face instantly softened, his eyes melting into liquid as he looked down at me. The shift helped to unfurl that knot that was tangling up in my belly. “Okay, baby,” he whispered, trailing his fingertips along my hairli
ne. “I can help you with that.”
My entire body sagged deeper into the mattress with relief. I’d managed to dodge a bullet. “Thank you,” I whispered in return.
“First up, what’s happening between us is that we’re together. Label it however you want. I’m your boyfriend, or man, or partner. I don’t really give a shit because it all means the same thing.”
“But you told Leah—”
“I said that when shit was twisted in my head. I was still lying to myself about what I was willing to accept from you. I never should have started anything with Leah. I tried to make myself believe that I was finally ready to move on from you, but I wasn’t, and in the end I ended up hurting a good woman because I wasn’t being honest with myself. That’s on me, not you. So don’t hold on to any guilt over that.”
“How can you tell me not to feel guilty? You broke up with her because of me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, babe. I didn’t break up with her because of you. I broke up with her because it was the right thing to do. I knew there wasn’t a future with Leah even before I knew I was going to pursue one with you. Whether or not I ended up with you in my bed, I still would’ve broken it off with her. I just lucked out and finally got you where I wanted you.”
I liked the sound of that, but there was still one thing that nagged at me. I bit my lip and forced myself to summon the courage to ask a question I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer to. “But what if we start this and you realize that I’m not worth the headache? Because I have to tell you, Deacon, I’m really not sure I am.”
For some reason that made him grin. “I’m not going to pretend to know what the future has in store, Fee. All I can promise is that I want this now. I’ve wanted it for a really long fucking time, and as long as it’s good, I’m going to do everything in my power to keep it that way. And I’ll also promise that if it starts to go bad, I’ll talk to you about it in the hopes that we can fix it and get us back to good.”
Charming Fiona Page 8
