Deception (Infidelity #3)

“It’s nothing. As I said, I think everything has caught up with me. It’s been a busy week. I’m just happy it’s over and you’re home. Thank you for coming last night.” I broadened my grin. “And this morning.”

Nox wasn’t easily distracted, though my mind had drifted to a few of our early morning scenes. “Charli, something upset you. Who is the woman on the call?” This time his question was more persistent than before.

“I’ll tell you…” I tried for a more upbeat tone. “… if we can go eat that dinner Lana prepared.”

Nox looked toward the clock. “It’s almost eight. Why didn’t you eat without me?”

My ear met my shoulder as I lifted the corners of my lips. “It appears that I napped instead.”

“So you’re well rested?” he asked, his brows rising with a hint of a promise that he’d moved on from his earlier concern. As he spoke, he removed his suit jacket, folded it, and placed it onto a nearby chair. “I hope her dinner isn’t ruined.”

“It smelled great when I peeked at it earlier. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t use frozen meatballs.”

Nox grinned. “No. That would be cause for immediate dismissal.”

“Oh? Should I start looking for a new place to live?”

“No, princess, just let Lana do the cooking. You have different duties.”

“Oh, I do?”

The gleam in his eyes and the view he provided as he continued to remove his tie left me momentarily tongue-tied. “Fine,” I finally said. “I turned down the heat in the oven. It was my contribution to dinner. It should all be fine.”

Nox reached for my hand and helped me stand. “It does smell wonderful,” he agreed before his gaze narrowed. “If it didn’t, I might decide to keep you in here and skip food.”

“Keep me in here?” My tone turned sultry with a touch of innocence. “How would you plan to keep me? Tied to the bed?”

One of Nox’s brows twitched. “Careful. Food is beginning to lose its appeal.”

His innuendo reminded me why I’d entered the bedroom in the first place. “Do you know…?” My question faltered as I searched for the right words and fought the embarrassment brought on by the subject.

My mind told me that it was silly. No one in the world knew me as intimately as Nox Demetri. Simply asking him the location of my vibrator shouldn’t make me nervous. Maybe it was because he’d once told me I wasn’t allowed to use it. The thing was—I didn’t want to be the one in control.

“Do I know… what?” Nox asked, pulling me close, his arm firmly around my waist. “How to tie satin into the perfect knots that keep you exactly where I want you?”

Our hips came crashing together, prompted by his embrace. My breathing hitched as I worked to stay focused on my goal and not allow my thoughts to imagine what he described. With my neck bowed backward, I tilted my head seductively and lowered my lashes. “No, Mr. Demetri. I know the answer to that question. I was wondering if you knew where my vibrator was? Last time I saw it, it was on the bed.”

His menacing gaze, which over the last week had been replaced with concern and worry, resurfaced with a vengeance. Its reappearance caused my heart to tremble and body to quake in anticipation.

“Miss Collins, was that the reason for your angst? Were you so horny that you were crying over a lost vibrator, one that I believe I told you was off-limits? Is that what happens when I’m merely an hour late?”

“No!” I said playfully as I pushed against his unmoving chest.

“Really now,” he cooed, “I’m certain I can help you with that need and many more. Maybe we should forget dinner?”

“Food, Mr. Demetri. That was where we were going. Lana’s note said that some of her meals of late have ended up in the trash. This won’t be one of them. Unless you plan to starve me?”

“No. Starving you doesn’t sound like fun. Causing you to cry out my name in sexual frustration… now that sounds promising.”

My tummy did flip-flops as his grin joined the navy swirls within the light blue of his eyes. It wasn’t fair that after a long day he could be so handsome and have the ability to twist my insides with mere words and glances.

“And for the record,” Nox continued, “I do know where your vibrator is. And since you’ve successfully avoided answering my direct questions about the call, I believe our after-dinner activity has been planned. Just wait, Miss Collins, my interrogation technique is very effective.” He tugged me closer. “So much so, that if some of my methods weren’t considered illegal by the Geneva Convention, Homeland Security would certainly use it to learn secret intelligence.”

“I haven’t avoided…” I began in my own defense, ignoring the tantalizing cocktail rushing through my blood, the one created by equal measures of anticipation at his promise and the right amount of trepidation at his threat.

Nox bent toward me and kissed my forehead. His deep voice resonated his new warning. “Princess, don’t make it worse.”

“I’m not. It’s just that—”

He shook his head, our noses touching.

“We could just go for sweet and slow,” I tried. “This morning was… well, amazing seems woefully insufficient.”

Nox smiled at my use of the same words he’d said in Del Mar. “Yes, princess, I agree. But tonight is about learning your secrets, one way or the other. Before this night is over, you’ll be telling me what I want to know or suffering the consequences.” He tugged my hand, pulling me toward the hallway and kitchen. “Sustenance first, sex coma later.”

Trailing a step behind, I bit my lower lip as my mind filled with possibilities and my insides twisted to a pleasurable and painful pitch. If I didn’t think I’d need the nutrition, I’d agree to forgo dinner.





SECRETS WEREN’T SECRETS unless they were hidden away. Those things that we shared openly, that we talked, laughed, and even cried about, couldn’t hurt us because they were out there for the world to see. It was the things that we kept hidden, that we didn’t share, that lurked in the shadows—those held the power to hurt, harm, and even destroy.

Nox and I both had them—secrets we hadn’t shared.

Perhaps it wasn’t that we didn’t want to share. It was that we didn’t know how.

After our meal, Nox went to a drawer in our closet and found my missing vibrator. Apparently, it wasn’t missing at all, but hidden from possible prying eyes.

“I got the impression that you weren’t against voyeurism?” I asked with a smirk.

“Oh, princess, it depends on my mood.” He suggestively lifted one brow. “After I have that sexy body perfectly positioned, do you think I should call Isaac?”

“No,” I answered too quickly.

As Nox surveyed the items in the drawer, I stepped behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist. I didn’t want whatever he had planned filled with confessions. I wanted them out of the way so we could concentrate on other things.

With my cheek against his back, I said, “Jane was my nanny.”

He didn’t turn, but stood taller. By the way his muscles tensed, I knew I had his full attention.

“Did you call her or did she call you?”

“I called her.”

“Why did her call upset you?”

I shrugged against his warmth. “I think it’s because she’s one of the few parts of my childhood I don’t want to forget.”

Nox turned and surrounded me with his arms. “Then don’t.”

He made it sound so simple.

“I love her, as I should love…” I tucked my lips between my teeth, not wanting to cry or ruin the mood he’d been trying to create. “I’m sorry. I wanted to answer your question so we could think about other things.” I tilted my head toward his open drawer. Lengths of black satin lay neatly coiled beside the pink case of my vibrator. There were also candles and an accumulation of other toys we’d only begun to enjoy.