Deceived By the Others

chapter 9



At my pleading look, Chaz dismissed Simon and Dillon. The two breathed very obvious sighs of relief and rushed off, not giving Chaz a chance to change his mind. Though I could tell he was annoyed, he quickly lost track of his irritation once I slid my arm around his waist and pressed up against his side.

“So, what did you have in mind for this afternoon?” I asked.

He soon replaced the irritation with playfulness, grinning down at me while his fingers toyed with the bra strap peeking out of my shirt collar. “It’s a surprise.”

My eyebrows arched at that, as I worked my hand under his shirt to rub against the smooth plane of hard muscle on his back. My smile grew wider when he flexed, responding so readily to my touch. He urged me to move, and it was with a mixture of disappointment and curiosity that I noted he wasn’t leading me to our cabin—we were headed somewhere into the woods.

“Where are we going?”

“No questions yet. You’ll see,” he said.

I kept my mouth shut, but both of us explored the bounds of our self-imposed chastity by letting our hands wander and pressing against each other as we walked. The trees were soon close around us, limbs lightly slapping against our arms and legs as we walked, giving us that much greater an excuse to hold each other close as we followed some half-formed path through the underbrush. I barely noticed. He laughed when I stumbled over a root in the mulch, tightening his grip on me in a way I didn’t mind at all.

I’m not sure how long we walked. I was too distracted to notice where we were going until Chaz halted, and the sound of running water drew my attention to my surroundings.

It looked like something out of a fairy tale. The path led to a stream fed by a small waterfall trickling down over mossy rocks. Birds occasionally darted out to snap up a bug and bullfrogs sang their rough songs from the pool at the base of the falls. Someone had long ago dragged a stone bench out here and set it in a grassy clearing looking over the water; the wilds no doubt would have reclaimed it save that someone had cut back the worst of the brush, leaving the bench barely visible in the field of waving green stalks. The trail curved to follow the stream, and I could see where it picked up on the other side, just beyond some large stepping stones cutting a path through the water.

“Do you like it?”

“It’s beautiful,” I breathed, settling back against Chaz’s chest as he wrapped his arms around me.

We stayed like that for a while, him holding me while I drank in the beauty of the place. The heavy scent of pine wasn’t as thick here; instead, there was an odd smell, reminiscent of parsnips, which Chaz told me was the scent of the huge hemlock growing near the base of the waterfall.

Hand in hand, we waded through the thick grass to the edge of the water, avoiding the wavering hemlock clusters that would bloom with white or green flowers come springtime. I pulled a cattail that still had the brown, densely packed seeds on the top, using it to stir the water near the edge. We settled down in the grass, laughing and grabbing at each other for balance as the cold water soaked through our jeans.

He helped me take off my shoes and roll up my pants to my knees, then I set aside my cattail and did the same for him. We stuck our bare feet in the water, and he chuckled at my gasp of shock. We scooted closer on the shore, twining our legs together as we wiggled our toes against the chill. He held me against him, and we watched the frogs and salamanders and fish gradually build up the courage to return to this invaded slice of their haven.

“Shia?”

“Yes?”

“You’ve never talked to me about what happened while you were with Royce.”

Startled, I withdrew. “Chaz—”

“No, Shia,” he said, tightening his grip on me so I couldn’t pull away. I glanced up, afraid of what emotions I’d see reflected in his eyes, but he was staring across the water instead of at me. A muscle in his jaw was twitching; not a good sign. “I think I have a right to know. I brought you out here for a few reasons. One of them was to see if we have a future together. If we’re ever going to get past what happened, if we’re ever going to be like we were, then you need to talk to me.”

I didn’t answer right away, shocked beyond speech that he would bring this up now. His grip on me was too tight to pull away from, and the intimacy of the moment was completely shattered by sudden memories of being at the vampire’s beck and call. Panic at being imprisoned by Chaz’s hold subsided as I reached for his other hand to grasp it in both of my own. He didn’t return the squeeze of reassurance I gave him.

“I want a future with you, Chaz. I can’t imagine being without you. You’ve saved my life, more than once, and stood by me during some of the toughest trials I’ve ever endured.” I lifted a hand up to his cheek, making him look at me. The hurt so raw in his expression cut me deeper than I would have expected, made it hard to say my next words. “When I was bound to Royce, I loved him.”

Chaz started to pull away, withdrawing his arm from around me. My hand fell to his shoulder, holding him there while I straddled his waist, preventing him from rising. He glared up at me, brows furrowed and teeth suddenly bared in an angry sneer.

“Don’t,” he growled. “You’ve said enough.”

“Chaz, shut the f*ck up and let me finish,” I snarled back. Startled, he leaned back, anger still glinting in his icy blue eyes, but some of the tension trickling out of him as he settled down beneath me. “I loved him because I had to. I had no choice. Do you understand? It wasn’t real. His blood made me want to be with him and do what he said. Hell, I couldn’t have said no if he’d really pushed me to let him touch me or drink my blood. He never asked, but I wouldn’t have been able to say no if he did. That’s nothing like what we have. I’m with you because I have a choice, and because I care about you. I won’t blindly do what you say—but if I did, is that how you’d want me?”

He stared up at me, anger and confusion and hurt warring with a sudden understanding. He knew now, knew what neither of us had had the courage to say since I ran on bloodied feet from the divided loyalties that waited for me in Royce’s shadow.

When he answered, his voice was low, hardly a whisper.

“No.”

Not satisfied, I bunched up his shirt in my fists, anger getting the better of me the more I thought about it. Chaz couldn’t possibly understand what it had been like for me. How hard it had been to stay sane, stay me, and walk away when it was over. Worse, wrong or not, he still felt jealous of the vampire for having some part of me he’d never touched.

“I craved his blood, Chaz. He could have kept me there, given me more when I begged for it, and made me his. He didn’t. He let me go. Don’t blame him for doing what he thought he had to do to keep me safe.”

“Why not, Shia?” Chaz grabbed me by the shoulders, startling me when he reversed our positions, his legs now on either side of my hips. Cold water from the pool bit at my toes and seeped into my shirt from the grass under my back. His weight on my legs was light, but I couldn’t sit up. “Why shouldn’t I blame him? Hell, we’ve slept together, but you two were more intimate than we’ve ever been. You’re bound to him by blood and by contract. Do you want the leech instead? Should I let you go?”

If not for the tears in his eyes, I would’ve been offended. I hadn’t realized the depth of his hurt until now. He was angry, so angry, but that anger was built upon something neither of us had any control over.

With a low growl, I answered him in the only way I could think of that wouldn’t hurt him more. I threw my arms around his neck and pulled myself up to kiss him, not letting him draw away when he jerked back. Digging my nails into his shoulders, I poured every ounce of anger and frustration and need into that moment, hungrily slanting my mouth over his. Before long, his hands were crushing me to him, an equal passion driving him to devour my kiss like he was starving for the taste of me.

We tugged and pulled at each other’s clothing, the wet grass sliding under my back and legs as my shirt and pants disappeared. One of the buttons on Chaz’s shirt popped off and plunked into the water, forgotten as skin met skin, the heat generated between us making it easy to forget the cold and the mud. His teeth grazed my skin as he kissed and licked his way from my cheek, down my neck, and settled to a light suckling on my nipple through the thin material of my bra.

My breath caught as his fingers, rough and calloused, brushed along my stomach and down between my legs. We’d done far more than this without a contract, but that was before I knew what he was. We shouldn’t have been doing this. He’d never hurt me—I knew he wouldn’t—but there were so many things that could go wrong if we ignored the law.

Sensing my hesitation, Chaz paused, regarding me with a mixture of lust and anger so intense a shiver of fear trickled down my spine.

“Do you want me to stop?”

His question meant more than what he was asking. If he stopped now, it would be the end of everything between us.

I shook my head, wrapping my legs around his waist and reaching up to tug his mouth back down to my breast in answer. Pressed as tightly against him as I was, I felt the shudder of something—maybe relief?—roll through him.

A gasp escaped me as first one, and then another finger explored me. Chaz shifted to cover my mouth with his, swallowing my cries as he swiftly worked me into a frenzy of desire. My nails dug into his back and shoulders, the pressure between my legs growing unbearable. Too soon, not soon enough, a shudder wracked me as my pleasure reached its peak.

He pulled away long enough to hear me cry out, both his hands sliding up to cup my cheeks, cradling my face as he pressed a few featherlight kisses on my brow. Chaz positioned himself even as the tremors leaving my thighs quaking tapered off, and I eagerly opened myself to him.

Suddenly, he stiffened—and not in the good way. He lifted his head, frowning as he levered himself up on his arms. Breathless, I stared at him, wondering why he had stopped.

A faint, strange sound echoed across the valley. Chaz hastily rose to his feet, slipping in the mud.

“Stay here. I’ll be back soon.”

“Wait! Chaz, what is it?” I struggled to sit up, shivering as the wind bit against my wet skin. The loss of warmth was doing more to kill my desire than Chaz’s uneasiness and the abrupt halt to our “festivities.” I wrapped my arms around myself while he threw his clothes on, not bothering to take the time to button his shirt or put on his shoes.

“Someone’s hurt. I need to check it out.” He glanced down at me as he (carefully) zipped up, a wry smile not easing the strain of worry or frustration at the interruption from his features. “Being the pack leader’s a bitch sometimes.”

“I’ll go with you,” I said, reaching for my shirt. He shook his head.

“No, wait here. It could be dangerous. Let me make sure everything is okay. I’ll come back and get you when it’s safe.”

“Be careful,” I said, heart lodged in my throat as I watched him race along the path back to the cabins.