Page 12 of Surviving Lies

“Don’t worry, I know her type. If I hadn’t said it, she was going to ignore you the entire time. At least now you’ll get some respect, the respect you deserve.”

He was right; she treated me better thinking I was his fiancée, but not great. If he hadn’t done that, she would have treated me differently. The first pieces he wanted to pick out were couches. Gage walked around the back room – quite picky for a guy, if you ask me – looking for the perfect couch. With what I knew of him already, I expected him to gravitate to the sleek black leather set I saw as soon as we walked in, but he passed it and moved on. No, instead, we stood in front of a white slipcovered sectional, complete with cushions that looked as though you would sink into them upon sitting.

“Go ahead,” he said matter-of-factly, gesturing toward the sofa.

“What? Me? It’s going to be your couch. You sit on it.” At that, he pulled me close, one arm going around my waist while the other held my hand. His mouth was close to my ear, but he said nothing. He just breathed.

And it was intoxicating. To feel his breath against me, the reaction my skin was having to the warmth. Our chests were touching, a position we’d been in before. But this time, it was of our own volition. I didn’t know if my thin lace bra was enough to contain my peaked nipples, or if he could feel them pushing against him. But they were rock hard.

“Becca, you smell amazing.” He took another deep breath in, his jaw rubbing along my temple, its light stubble breaking through my hair and grazing my skin. He moved his mouth back to my ear to speak again. “I want to see how you’ll look on the couch, since I have plans for you to be on it in the future.”

Well, fuck. What was I supposed to say to that? I had nothing, literally no comeback. All I could do was pull back and look up at him. The question was in my eyes, he could see it, but neither of us said anything. He only nodded with his chin toward the couch, encouraging me to sit. I broke from his hold and turned to look at it, this beautiful four-thousand-dollar couch he was envisioning me on.

And I thought I could see it, too.

I chose the deep corner where the two sides met. It provided enough room to pull my legs up and still have room to spare. I curled up as if I were getting ready to watch tv or read a good book, digging into the cushions and loving the feel. It was the most comfortable couch I’d ever been on; I may have even moaned.

I bounced off the couch from the weight of him plopping next to me. My head snapped in his direction to figure out what he was doing. His head leaned in toward mine, and he motioned with his finger for me to move even closer, our heads now almost touching against the back cushion of the couch.

“Um,” he whispered, “I’m not sure having you sit on the couch was such a great idea after all.” I was surprised and a little annoyed by his sudden change in behavior. He could sense it and leaned in closer yet. “Becca, not Rebecca, I don’t think you realize what you do to me. That little sound that came from the back of your throat, well, it did things to me, baby.” He casually looked at the bulge in his pants before scanning the rest of the showroom, making sure we were alone. I daresay he was blushing. His hands went low and were trying to adjust himself, the attempt futile.

I had visions of him taking my hand and placing it on his lap, his pants stretched tight over his fully engorged erection. It would take all my restraint to not wrap my fingers around him right there in the middle of the store. I was trembling just thinking about it.

“Becca?” His voice rocked me from my fantasy. But it was only that, a fantasy, right? This was not a thing between him and I. We were just friends. Gage knew I was just getting out of my relationship with Ty, who was a fellow frat brother of his, for crying out loud. “Becca?”

“Yeah?” My voice was more breathy than I wanted it to be. I turned toward him and found him staring at me. His dark eyes bore the same message his dick did.

He wanted me.

“You’re not going to make this easy on me, are you?” he laughed.

“Well, that’s a loaded question, isn’t it? What exactly are you referring to?” He didn’t have time to answer me before my favorite salesperson interrupted us.

“So, any progress, Mr. Parker?” Amanda still refused to pay me much attention, but Gage continued to put her in her place.

“I don’t know, you’ll have to ask the boss. Babe, is this the one? Is this the couch you see us on every night?” His hand was casually on my knee, and my heart was pounding in my chest. I didn’t have time to miss a beat, though.

“Yeah, babe, this is it. This one will do. It seems . . . firm enough, don’t ya think?” I said this as I started bouncing up and down on the cushion.

“Amanda, we’ll take this one. Could you give us a minute?” His tone was gruff as she turned on her heels, happy with the sale but not amused by me. I turned toward him, wondering why he would be mad. I thought I put on a pretty outstanding performance. His eyes followed Amanda out of the back room we were in. Once she was gone, he stood, pulling me up with him, flush against his chest again.

I could get used to this.

“Becca, I need you to stop doing that, please.”

I was confused. I played along with his charade, followed his lead. And now he was angry and wanted me to stop? He buried his nose in my hair, once again inhaling my scent. All of this was such a contradiction. But I pushed away from him, not enjoying his games.

“Gage, I don’t understand. I thought you wanted me to play along?” What I didn’t need was another man messing with my head. “I don’t need more bullshit in my life, Gage.”

“Fuck, Becca, you’re even turning me on when you’re mad. Come here.” I hesitated as he reached his hand out to me, but I relented. “I love how your eyebrows pinch together when you want to yell but are trying not to.” He chuckled. “I needed you to stop bouncing on the couch, because your tank top is not leaving much to the imagination.” Looking down at my shirt, I realized I wasn’t wearing a very supportive bra, so I could only imagine how that looked. I was kind of spilling out of the shirt. “I can’t have any other guys in this place seeing you do that. Hell, I think one more bounce and you could have Amanda coming home with you.”

That made me bark out a laugh, and the tension between us thankfully subsided.

“Yeah, I doubt that. If she’s coming home with us, she’s putting me in the trunk.” Gage gave me a weird look.

“I like how that sounds.”

“What? Putting me in the trunk?”

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