Page 45 of Trust and Obey

We slowed to a stop. He bowed over me, panting against my neck. Then, with a reluctant sound, he pulled out.

I kept my eyes shut as he went through a quick clean up.

As I caught my breath, regret began to trickle in.

What had I done? I pressed the palms of my hands over my eyes. Why did the sex have to be so damn good? Why was I drawn to him so strongly?

I had never felt anything like this with anyone. Whenever I’d left a boyfriend before—because I was bored, or they were annoying me, or we were just going different paths—it had been easy. I hadn’t thought twice about it.

Now that professional distance I’d worked all day to build between myself and Deacon was shattered.

And once again, it was all my fault.

Sitting up, I quickly hunted around and located my clothing.

“Kendall?” Deacon asked, sounding fuzzy and a little out of it in the best way after a good romp. “What are you doing?”

“Getting my uniform,” I said curtly.

Luckily, my clothing was more or less in one place and the polo shirt and cargo shorts were easy to throw back on.

“What?” Deacon set up frowning. “No, wait. You can’t just—come back here, Kendall, we should—”

“I still have work to do,” I said and turned, my shoes hanging off my fingers.

“Kendall, please, we need to talk.”

The thread of pain in his voice made me feel horrible all over again.

With a quick shake of my head, I turned and fled, barefoot, out of the room.

16

DEACON

I took a quick shower to get the scent of sex off me. Then, after quickly redressing in shorts and a t-shirt, I set out to find Kendall.

This hot and cold act was not going to fly. If he wanted to end our fling… Well, it would hurt like hell, but at least I would know what the hell was going on.

Mostly, though, I wanted to make sure that Kendall was all right. And that whatever was bothering him wasn’t something I had done.

And if it was my fault, I would do everything in my power to fix it.

My first stop was the outdoor bar where I had accidentally run into him a few days ago. He wasn’t there now, but there were a few helpful looking employees. Maybe someone would know where Kendall was.

I walked up and addressed an older man with the name tag ‘Sam’ who was grumpily filling up the ice.

“What can I get you today, son?” Sam asked in a gruff voice.

I shook my head. “Actually, I was looking for my personal relaxation consultant. Kendall?” It hit me then that I didn’t even know his last name.

The man squinted at me. “What for?”

Well, that was blunt. I didn’t want to use the excuse for needing a massage twice. I had the feeling that Sam would only direct me back down to the beach. “I had some tasks in my scheduling I needed him to delegate.”

“Huh.” Sam scratched the back of his neck and then shrugged. “I saw him heading out towards the docks.”

“Thank you,” I said curtly.

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