Deception (Infidelity #3)

Without words, I encouraged her to roll to her stomach and lifted her ass as she settled on her elbows. For only a moment I took the time to appreciate the masterpiece before me. The Mona Lisa or Starry Night couldn’t compare to her beauty: poised, ready, and willing. Charli was picturesque with her entrance and thighs glistening. Her body offered no resistance but pushed toward me as she released a loud gasp and my length slid deep inside. The walls of her pussy stretched and accommodated as they tightened around me. Thrust for thrust, I drove deeper and deeper until her arms gave out, leaving her cries of pleasure muffled by the pillows. My fingers blanched as they dug into her hips, choreographing her movements. Harder and harder, I was possessed. The friction was a drug concoction, a mixture of a stimulant to keep going and a tranquilizer to ease my earlier mayhem. The room filled with her wordless screams as again she detonated, her muscles rigid before finally going slack.

I pulled out and rolled her so that I could see her golden stare, no longer fearful, her beautiful eyes were hooded, satiated, and satisfied. She whimpered a protest as I once again plunged into her core. Slowly I teased, in and out, my dick purposely rubbing her sensitive clit. So amazingly responsive, she began to again move with me. Our bodies synced in a rhythm of their own. The urgency from before was gone. My only desire was to linger in its wake. This was somehow different than it had ever been. I wasn’t fucking Charli, but loving her. More and slower, her expression morphed, as the realization became clear to us both.

We were making love.

I was in Charli and in heaven. In the eye of the storm, I was making love to the new love of my life.

Again her eyes closed, back arched, and lips formed a circle as we came at the same time. My body trembled violently as a growl tore, not from my throat but from my chest, and I released inside of her. Though she’d fallen slack against the soft sheets, I continued to come, a never-ending fountain as I released more than my seed.

I filled her with me.

I was hers.

When I was finally done, I collapsed, covering her with my body, shielding her from the evil that lurked about us. If I could, I’d keep us here forever. But I couldn’t. Once again, I had work that I needed to do at Demetri Enterprises, business that couldn’t be postponed.

Her breathing slowed to a point that I wondered if she were asleep. I kissed her forehead and her nose as I pulled out of her. Slowly her lids fluttered as a grin covered her bruised pink lips.

“I think I’m about ready to fall into a sex-induced coma.”

My cheeks rose. “I’d like to keep you perpetually induced.”

“Hmm.” She wiggled beneath me.

No longer connected, I rolled to the side and pulled her close. “Charli, I still need to leave. I’ll be late for this afternoon’s testimony, but I have to be there.”





“NO.” THE CALM that had settled over me, lulling me into the coma that Chelsea had warned me about, disappeared. “I don’t want you to go.”

Nox’s brow furrowed. “You’ll be safe. You’re staying here.”

Reaching for the sheets, I pulled them up to my breast and sat against the headboard. Indignation rose. “No. You said we don’t know who the target was. You can’t go to Washington. That’s where you’re supposed to be. If you go there, you could be walking into a trap.”

Lying beside me, Nox lifted his arm and covered his eyes with his bicep. It was then I realized he was still wearing his white silk shirt. His tie was gone and I suspected that his pants were somewhere buried in the mountain of blankets, yet his shirt was pristinely white—albeit wrinkled—in the darkened room.

“That’s why you’re staying here,” he said.

“What? No. I have class. I already missed today.” Though the scent of sex lingered, my thighs still wet, and my muscles clenched, the mood of moments before was gone. “You can’t go to Washington and expect me to stay hidden in this house.”

Nox sat up and in one swift move he was before me, our noses touching. “I can and I do. This conversation is done.”

Common sense told me to let the dust settle, allow him his little show of dominance and then revisit the subject. Then again, if he were in DC there wouldn’t be time for renegotiations. “No.”

The covers flew as Nox sat, swung his long, muscular legs off the side of the bed, and searched for the rest of his clothes.

“Don’t you understand?” he asked.

“Yes. I get it. I get that you’re protective. I understand something terrible happened today. I won’t walk in the park. I’ll let Jerrod drive me everywhere. I have a responsibility to my schooling.”

“Fuck, Charli, so do I. I have a responsibility and it’s you.”

He was now standing, straightening his shirt, pushing it down into his pants, and securing his buttons, zipper, and belt. Before I devised a plausible response, he continued, “I was not supposed to be in Central Park this morning.”

“Yes, I know. You were only there because of…” A cold chill covered my skin as it prickled with fear. “…me.”

“Deloris has a full team working on this. There was a communication that went out to Jerrod and Isaac about our change in plans. The network is supposed to be secure, but fuck, I’m not sure of anything anymore.”

“H-has she learned anything more about the break-in?”

Nox’s hand ran through his sex-messed hair. “Her priority shifted when someone decided to use us for target practice.”

“But they could be connected?”

He nodded. “They could.” He leaned down upon the bed. “Both are connected to you.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m not saying you’re involved, though some on her team are insinuating that.”

What?

“I’m saying,” he went on, “that someone could be trying to get to me through you. First, there was the attack on Chelsea, then the break-in at our apartment, and now this. I’m saying that this house is the safest place for you until we know more. Even Oren agrees.”

Oren? He spoke with his father?

“Contact your professors. Claim illness, the flu, I don’t give a fuck. Ask to read from home. If you need anything from the apartment, tell Jerrod or Deloris. They’ll get it and bring it to you.” His blue eyes widened. “Don’t they offer teleconferencing of the lectures?”

My gaze narrowed. “How would you know that?”

“You, Miss Collins, left all of your school shit all over the kitchen table for over two weeks. Did you not think I’d at least glance at all the crap?”

I folded my arms over my sheet-covered breasts. “Nox, I don’t want to start my career as a law student as the one hearing the recorded lecture. I want to be the one sitting in the front row and asking the pertinent questions. Do you think I graduated with honors by doing the minimum?”

“No, princess, I don’t. I think you knocked it out of the park, because believe me, what we just did here, well, let me say, you hit a home run.” He planted a kiss on the top of my head. “I fucking hate this. I do. I want you to succeed. I also need to know you’re alive and safe. Today’s Wednesday. Give Deloris a day or two. Call Columbia. Tell them whatever you need to tell them. I’ll be back on the weekend.”

“Weekend?” I asked. “You want me to stay here for three days? What about Patrick’s apartment?”

Nox’s blue stare lowered a degree or two. The temperature was nearing freezing. Ice was not far away. “Alexandria Collins, this conversation is done.”

“I only have my laptop.”

“My office is your office. Help yourself. I’ll leave all the necessary passwords on the desk.”

“Deloris?”

“She’ll be out here later. Let her or Jerrod know what you need and they’ll bring it.”

I sighed, laying my head back against the headboard.

“And stay inside,” he went on. “I’m not even a fan of the pool house, at least until Deloris is certain of the perimeter.”

Perimeter? I’m in a damn war zone.

“I don’t have a choice, do I?”

“Princess, you have a choice. If you choose me, then that’s your choice.”

“Fuck, Nox, of course my choice is you. Just tell me that I’ll be able to go back and be the student in the front row.”

“As soon as it’s safe.”

“What about you?” I asked.

“What about me?”

“How will I know you’re safe? Are you flying commercial or in your Batplane?”

“Batplane. The super-secret gadgets let me fly under the radar.”

I smiled at his grin and the menacing gleam, yet if he could be worried about me, I could be worried about him. “I still haven’t seen your cape, and I’d say we’re past the third date.”

“No, princess, you haven’t seen my cape, but you’ve seen under the mask. You do realize that makes you part of a very elite group.”