Page 76 of Corrupted Deception

There wasn’t a tan line on her, just firm, lightly bronzed skin. I wanted to explore every inch of it, but for the first time, the urge to tie her up was muted behind the urge to feel her writhing and fighting me with teeth and nails like claws.

But I was out of time. Aurelio must have gathered all the intel we needed by now. With a sigh, I swung my legs over the edge of the bed as she slipped her arms into a short, silk robe and tied the sash.

“I have shit I have to take care of, but I’ll be back soon,” I told her as I reluctantly dressed.

“Soon?” she questioned, pausing a few steps away.

“Si, soon.” I replied. “As in shortly. Before long. In a while.”

She shook her head doubtfully. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“You’re not still planning to offer yourself up to Miguel Silva like a god damned meal?”I asked, damn sure that was exactly what she’d been planning to do.

She sighed. “No, I’m not.”

“Bene,” I replied warily. Nothing with Charlotte was ever that easy.

She shrugged. “It seems that giving in to one impulse gives the other time to subside.”

“Then as I said”—I reached for her hands and pulled her toward me—"I’ll be back soon.”

“That’s not necessary, Cielo,” she said rationally, her silver eyes unreadable. “Let’s not try to make this into something more than it was.”

“And what was it?” I asked. I wasn’t in the mood to be rational. I was in the mood to fuck, over and over again until we were both too exhausted to move.

She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, which pressed the upper swells of her tits above the neckline of her robe. “Sex, Cielo. It was just sex.”

Maybe. But I’d never fucked like that. In the ring was the only place I’d ever let loose that primitive side of me. Sex had always been controlled; the more restraints I used, the more power I wielded, the better.

But power had been a fluid thing with Charlotte, a tantalizing back and forth that flowed so quickly it blurred the lines and became intangible, impossible to grab onto for more than a moment before it shifted again.

I’d fucked hundreds of women, maybe thousands, and not once had it ever been like that. But then, I always knew Charlotte would be different.

“It wasn’t just sex; it was great sex. And I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t do it again.” The more I thought about it, the more it sounded like something we should be doing. Right now.

But she shook her head firmly and took a step back, pulling her hands from my grip.

“No, Cielo, it’s not going to happen again. It can’t. I don’t know how you managed to get Ray to warm up to you—maybe you walk around with raw steaks in your pockets.”

All right, what the hell just happened? Why were we suddenly talking about her dog?

“But we’re strangers,” she continued. At least, I thought it was a continuation of the same conversation. I couldn’t have said for sure. “Just because we went to school together once upon a time, that doesn’t mean shit now.”

“You mean once upon a time, back before you took off without so much as a word? Are we going to talk about that yet?”

Her eyes narrowed. “No, we’re not. It’s been ten years, Cielo. It’s not healthy to obsess like this. And speaking of healthy, I don’t need anyone else in my life any more than Ray does. Casual is all we need, thank you very much.”

“So, you just fuck random strangers?” I asked, latching onto the one bit of information that was making any sense here.

She scoffed. “Yes, that is exactly what I do. And then I send them on their merry way afterward… because they’restrangers.No ‘see you soon’; no ‘let’s do this again sometime’. So, this was fun, but it’s time for you to go find a new puzzle. Then you can make everything fit, neat and tidy in your life, just the way you like it.”

“If we’re strangers, then how the hell would you know how I like it?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest triumphantly as I trapped her with her own words.

She rolled her eyes, not appearing the least bit trapped. “Everything about you screams ‘organized’, like you’ve got all your shit together.”

“And that’s a bad thing?

“No, of course not,” she said. “It’s just notmything.”

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