Page 26 of Deceive Me
“No.” The word was more whisper than speech. Elliot wasn’t even certain what she was saying no to.
And Deacon wasn’t taking no for an answer, it seemed. His fingers tightened the slightest bit. When he moved to cup her face with the other hand, Elliot jerked back, but his hold wouldn’t allow her to go far. She watched with breathless anticipation, her stomach clenching and, lower, wet heat pooling as his rough palm pressed against her jaw. Long fingers reached to just below her ear, where he stroked the sensitive skin to painful life.
Elliot fought the need to tip her head, push herself harder against his touch like a cat.
Deacon’s searching gaze took it all in, stripping her bare. “I’m definitely interested in you, Elliot, and I believe you’re interested in me. Why fight it?”
“Why give in?”
“Because I’d like to think about something other than getting you beneath me,” he said, “and that’s only going to be possible one way.”
Her breath choked off in her throat. Her eyes feeling like saucers, she finally managed, “So…what? We fuck and get it out of the way?”
She cringed as her own words registered in her ears, but Deacon merely laughed. The rich sound seemed to settle in her nipples, which budded up tight against her sports bra.
“I wouldn’t have put it quite that way. Look…” His hands dropped. Relief and disappointment warred inside her. When he began to walk again, she instinctively moved with him. “I’m not the kind of man that jumps from bed to bed, especially not with someone I work with. But I’m no idiot, either.” He glanced her way, his firm lips curving in a smile. “I want to get to know you; that’s all.” He paused again. “For now.”
Fuckin’ A.
She wanted him. He wanted her. But in less than three days, she would tell him something that might make him very, very angry.
Everything inside her screamed to give in, but was it worth it?
And then the analytical part of her brain spoke up. Maybe blurting out the truth about her father wasn’t the best strategy. Maybe this was the in she needed, a way to soften the blow—for both of them. If she could reveal herself gradually, maybe the final bomb would be easier to drop. Cause less devastation.
Maybe.
Except when she opened her mouth, nothing came out. For some reason saying we should fuck was a lot easier than saying I’m interested in you.
“Deacon, I—” What? She found herself staring hard at the woods beyond the fence, away from him, away from that searching gaze and the awkwardness it sparked inside her. Or maybe that was heat.
Of course it is, idiot. If her tongue would just untangle—
A sudden blaring filled her earpiece, jumpstarting her heartbeat. She whirled toward Deacon. The white cast to his face said he was receiving the same alert. “What is it?”
Deacon tapped his earpiece without answering. “Dain?”
Her boss’s voice came through the team line. “Perimeter alert, north corner.”
“Visual?” Deacon gripped her forearm tight and dragged her along as he jogged in the direction Dain had indicated.
“Nothing on visual.”
“Fionn?”
Deacon’s second responded immediately, his heavy breathing indicating he was already on the move. “Coming in hot to your west.”
Deacon nodded as if Fionn could see him. “Dain, send Saint.”
Elliot wondered for a moment why they needed the extra man. Then Deacon threw over his shoulder, “Did you see any issues with the fence earlier?”
“No.” She’d inspected the entire perimeter looking for her target. There’d been no sign of a disturbance until the alarm.
Deacon topped the rise closest to the north corner and stopped in the shadow of a thick pine, taking in the scene as instinctually as she did around his shoulder. No more than a second passed, but she knew he saw the same thing she did: nothing unusual.
“Get back to the house,” he barked. Elliot’s gaze shot to his, surprised, but the moment their eyes met, she knew exactly what he was thinking: Sydney.
“I’ve got her,” she assured him. Surprisingly, the need to put his fears to rest was nearly as strong as her own to have the little girl in her sights, in her arms. Without waiting for a response, she hurried toward the house, wondering the entire journey how this little family had managed to squirm its way into her loner psyche so fast and so thoroughly.
