Lucky Liar (Lucky Alphas Book 1)

by Mallory Crowe

  “Wait, what?”

  Tara’s grin stretched across her face. “Smile, honey. You’re on Candid Camera,” she said before walking away.

  Zoe glanced around desperately but didn’t see any sign of someone taking pictures. Was it possible Tara had been bluffing?

  She supposed it all depended on how crazy Tara was....

  Wade rushed home and pressed the button to his level impatiently. It wasn’t as if he were running late. It wasn’t as though the plane would leave without them. This was now the longest he’d gone without seeing Zoe, and that idea felt distinctly uncomfortable. When the elevator doors opened, he wanted to run through the house until he found her but was stopped dead in his tracks by a familiar blonde. He froze and stared at the back of her head. “Tara?”

  But when she turned around and smiled at him, he knew he was wrong. “Do I look like a supermodel to you?”

  Oh thank God. He would shit himself if it had actually been Tara. Although the fact that Harper had somehow gotten into his apartment unannounced was disturbing in a different way. “Harper. I can’t believe you’re here.”

  “Yeah, I can’t really believe I made it this far either.”

  He shook his head. At this point, Harper really shouldn’t be able to surprise him. If she seemed normal, that would be the shocker.

  She held out her arms. “Bring it in, brother.”

  He’d never been a big hugger, but he could never deny Harper. Sure, when he’d been younger, he’d mostly given her extra attention because she was one of the prettiest girls in school. Over senior year, the relationship had developed far past the crush. Far past friends. More like brother and sister than anything else.

  He gave Harper a tight hug when he heard the elevator doors open behind him.

  “You’re kidding me, right?”

  Wade immediately stepped back from Harper as he turned to face Zoe. “This isn’t what it looks like,” he said quickly.

  “Please don’t tell me this is another ex-girlfriend.”

  Harper immediately started shaking her head. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. As charming as Wade used to be, we were never a thing. We were just friends. Harper Jones.”

  Interesting. He knew that Jones wasn’t her real last name. Who was she hiding from this time?

  Zoe’s eyes widened. “Harper? Oh, I didn’t realize you were in town. It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you....” Her words kind of trailed off at the end as she realized she shouldn’t be mentioning how much she’d heard about Harper.

  But the other woman apparently caught it. She raised an eyebrow and looked at Wade. “What exactly has she heard about me?”

  “Not what you’re thinking.” He said this for the second time in way too short of a time frame. “Someone is trying to bring up the past with my father. I was telling Zoe what happened.”

  Harper’s friendly smile immediately vanished, and she glared at him with a mixture of shock and anger. “You’re kidding. What part of secrecy do you not understand?”

  Oh for fuck’s sake. “Hey, I didn’t plan for any of this. It’s why I wanted to talk to you. I figured you’d call me like a normal person, not break into my apartment. I wanted you to be on the lookout for whoever’s stirring up shit.”

  She shook her head at him. “I’m always on high alert. You would know that if you bothered to keep in touch.”

  “I’m not the one running around the country, changing my phone number every three months, and doing my best to stay off the grid. If you want to be found, you have to make yourself known. Don’t put this on me.”

  Zoe crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you sure you two didn’t date?”

  “Yes,” they said in unison.

  “Zoe and I are heading back to Birdsville. I want to try to find any clues for who’s been leaving fake confession notes for people to find.”

  “A fake confession note? Who’s confessing to what?”

  “The note doesn’t say, but it directly fingered me as the culprit, and the note mentioned that I have multiple accomplices.”

  “Okay. So this is a you problem and not a me problem.”

  “It’s an everybody’s problem. Listen, Harper, I get that you got your own shit going on and you don’t want to get involved in this. So if you want, go ahead and pretend it never happened and disappear from my life like you have the past ten years. I’ll handle this on my own.

  “If you’re really so upset about this, you should come to Birdsville with us. The plane’s set to leave in an hour.”

  “Please. I’ll take my motorcycle over that deathtrap any day.”

  “You know motorcycles are a hell of a lot more dangerous than airplanes, right?” pointed out Wade.

  “I’ll take a dangerous vehicle I’m in control of over some death box flown by someone who has drank who knows what any day. I’ll head out now, and I’ll see you when I get there.”

  “You’re going from here to Birdsville? That can take days,” said Zoe.

  Harper rolled her eyes. “I’ll see you there tomorrow.” She picked up her helmet, which Wade was only just now noticing, and headed for the elevator. “It was nice meeting you, Zoe. Be careful with this one. He’s sneaky when you least expect it.”

  Wade narrowed his eyes. “Cut it out, Harper.”

  Harper tilted her head and then assessed the two of them. “Wow, I never thought it would happen. You must really like her.” This time the doors closed before he could give her any kind of retort.

  Zoe moved to stand next to him and looked at the elevator doors. “Anyone else I should be expecting to drop in unexpectedly?” she asked.

  “God, I hope not,” muttered Wade.

  Zoe leaned back in her seat and looked out the window. She’d always loved flying. It was funny to hear people complain about it. The long line in security, the cramped seat. Whenever she looked out a window, she felt so privileged to be able to be among the clouds. People weren’t meant to be up here. To be among the skies. She was incredibly lucky that she got the chance, let alone the luxury of this. And now she was on a private plane for the third time in a week. How could things change so quickly?

  “Are you okay?” asked Wade.

  She never knew what he wanted her to say when he asked that. Was she okay? She was officially more spoiled than she’d ever been in her life, and at the same time more overwhelmed than she’d ever been. “I’m taking in the sights,” she said.

  “I know it sucks that you have to deal with all this. It wasn’t part of the bargain when I asked you to marry me.”

  “On the contrary, I knew about the dad thing before you even thought about proposing to me. You can’t say I didn’t know what I was getting into.”

  “We both know that you didn’t know what you were getting into.”

  She sighed. How could he be right and wrong at the same time? “It’s not like you know everything about me,” she pointed out.

  “I know a lot about you.”

  “I guess I’m not that complex of a puzzle to solve, am I?”

  “There’s only one thing I don’t get.”

  “Ask away.”

  “Why Johnny?”

  Of course he had to ask about Johnny. Why wouldn’t he pick up on the one thing she didn’t want to talk about?

  “I don’t get it. I know he’s, like, the love of your life, but he just seems like a douche to me. What happened with that?”

  Zoe had been avoiding this conversation ever since she and Wade had exchanged their courthouse vows. She supposed it was about time that he knew. “Johnny wasn’t the love of my life.

  “When I was in my second year of college, Johnny and I were hot and heavy. He was cool, on his way to be a successful businessman, the perfect marriage material. And marriage was so important to me back then. My mom never married my father. She never wanted to be reliant on anybody. She especially didn’t want to be reliant on him because my dad was an ass, and nobody should be reliant on him,
but I was young enough to not get it at the time. When I got pregnant, it wasn’t a bad thing. It was all my dreams coming true. Johnny proposed, and I was already planning out how perfect our life was going to be together. When I lost the baby—” Her voice cracked as she tried to get through the story without totally breaking down. “When I lost the baby, that dream died for me. After two weeks of me not being able to get it together, Johnny left. I thought he proposed because he loved me, when really he just didn’t want to be embarrassed by having a bastard.”

  Zoe blinked away the tears. She was so sick of crying over this. This was ancient history. Why cry over a person who barely ever existed? Not only the son she lost, but over the idea of the person she thought she’d become. “Now his new wife is pregnant, and every time I see them, it gets to me a little bit. And I don’t even— Like, I’m fine if I don’t have kids. I’ve come to terms with that. But every time I see her, everything just comes back to me. I know that Johnny is a dick, I should feel sorry for her that she’s stuck with him for the rest of her life, but all it does is hurt.”

  “I shouldn’t have asked you about this,” said Wade, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

  “No, you had a right to know why I’m a complete basket case.”

  He shook his head. “You’re not a basket case, Zoe. I’m nothing but a spoiled rich boy who bitches about his problems all the time to you. I’d say you have more than enough right to feel angry or upset.”

  “Hey, your problems are real. They’re much more exciting than mine, I can tell you that. Thank God they’re exciting,” she deadpanned.

  All of a sudden, he stood from his seat and moved to sit next to her. Taking her hand in his, he gripped her fingers tightly.

  “You’d be surprised how many basket cases I’ve met. And considering the circumstances when you first came into my life, you seemed like a prime candidate for basket case. Men a lot more powerful than you have threatened me. I chewed them up and spat them out like they were nothing. But you.... You might be the most sane, put together, loyal person I’ve ever met. I thought I was lucky you came into my life when you did, at the perfect time. Now I know that it wasn’t luck. You’re exactly what I needed.”

  Zoe smiled and wiped a tear away from her face with her free hand. “You’re a charmer. A liar, but a charmer.”

  “Tell me if I’m lying.” Wade moved in, brushing his mouth over hers.

  On some level, it felt like the first time he kissed her. He wasn’t trying to manipulate her or fight with her. They were just having a conversation and then, bam. For a minute, it felt... real.

  Before she could even consider how stupid that thought was, he gripped the back of her neck and kissed her harder. His mouth slanted over hers and the kiss took on a life of its own. Soon enough, it wasn’t comforting anymore. It was hot and needy and a different thing altogether.

  Zoe reached up, grabbing his shoulders to adjust her awkward angle on the seats. Soon enough, he was following her wordless demands as he got out of his seat to lean over her. He was big, and all-encompassing. He was larger-than-life when he was standing in the same room as her, but now as he loomed over her and looked at her with the fire of desire in his eyes, he seemed like a giant. Her giant.

  As he pressed closer, Zoe’s legs naturally fell open for him. She arched her back from her reclined position, pressing into his hard erection as her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer.

  She managed to tear her mouth from his as she said breathlessly, “The last time this happened, you said it was a mistake.”

  “I’ve been carrying a condom in my back pocket since last time,” he breathed as he moved to kiss along her jaw and then nipped at her earlobe.

  She sucked in a gasp at the tingling sensation that seemed to shoot through her body, ending up in the place she really wanted him to touch. “So you’ve been thinking about this a lot?” she tried to say normally, as though she weren’t completely losing control.

  “It would be easier for me to list all the times I haven’t been thinking about it.” He tugged at her shirt. Because of their awkward positions, a fair bit of wiggling had to be done in order to get her shirt off, but they were both determined.

  He threw the shirt away from them as he stared at her body with awe in his eyes. “You’re magnificent,” he whispered.

  Zoe was flattered, but blood coursed through her as she flushed with embarrassment. “I’m no supermodel,” she muttered, remembering how perfect Tara had looked as she had been threatened earlier that day. Could she really compare to somebody who literally made their living off of being pretty? “She’s on the cover of magazines and I....”

  She drifted off as he set a hand on her breastbone and moved it lower between the valley of her breasts, her stomach, and brought it to rest on the button of her pants. “You’d be on the cover of a magazine made for men,” he said as he undid her pants with the flick of his wrist.

  She was utterly mesmerized by him, unable to say anything as she arched her back so he could pull her pants and panties down her legs. When the material was over her knees, she kicked off her shoes so that it could all pool on the ground.

  “You’re not so bad yourself,” she managed as a lame compliment. She wanted to tell him that he was the most beautiful man she’d ever met. That he looked as if one of the best sculptors in the world had created him out of thin air. That in all of her wildest dreams and fantasies, she’d never imagined being with someone like him. Not just because he was handsome and rich. It was the way he commanded a room, the way he looked at her, the way everybody seemed to respect him. The way he treated her family, the way he seemed to respect her even though she’d done nothing but make a mess of her life.

  If she had a genie, she wouldn’t even wish for someone like him, thinking the idea would be too impossible. Yet here he was, staring down her nearly naked body as if she were one of the prettiest women in the world, and she had no idea how she managed to get here.

  The “why” didn’t matter right now. Only heat, lust, and having him inside her mattered right now. She leaned up and reached for the button of his jeans. She was much less smooth than him as she fumbled to undo his fly. But she finally got it and he helped her push the material down.

  For a moment, she forgot about everything else. She just wanted him to spread her legs wide and slam into her in one fierce thrust, but Wade seem to have more of his head about it. He apparently managed to grab a condom before his pants went down and used his teeth to rip open the foil packet, an oddly feral and sensual action.

  She leaned back and stared appreciatively as he grabbed his thick cock with one hand and carefully rolled the latex over it. All sorts of dirty thoughts filled her mind. She wanted him to touch her. She wanted to see him touch himself more. She reached down and played with herself, taking delight as the heat in his eyes intensified, burning her like the surface of the sun. She let out a soft moan as she played with her clit, and his hand moved up and down his cock.

  “Do you have any idea what you do to me?” he bit out between clenched teeth.

  She didn’t answer. She didn’t know what she did to him, and quite frankly, all she cared about right now was reaching that elusive orgasm. Abruptly, he reached down and ripped her arm away before grabbing her hips forcibly. His fingers bit into her flesh as he pulled her toward him, positioning his cock right at her entrance. His eyes met hers, connecting them together in multiple ways as he slid home.

  Zoe bit her lip and threw her head back as he filled her, the sensation exactly what she needed and unbearable at the same time. Then all she could do was hold on. He’d seemed so in control up until this, but now whatever control he had seemed to go out the window. He kissed her neck, bit her neck, pulled her hair, and steadied her as he thrust back and forth, impossibly fast. All she could do was hold on tight until they both went over the cliff together.

  She screamed so loud she was certain the pilot could hear her as Wade pushed her down in the
chair, his arms around her so tight that she was sure she would have random bruises on her body the next day. Not that she would complain.

  As of right now, she was officially a member of the mile-high club, and she was expecting she was going to be a frequent visitor.

  “You look... different.”

  If Wade weren’t standing in front of Diane, he would’ve burst out laughing at how suddenly uncomfortable Zoe looked.

  Her gaze immediately went to the ground, and her head shrunk into her shoulders so much that she lost almost all of her neck.

  He tried to save her. “Zoe went shopping in the city yesterday. I had my assistant help her pick out some of the trendiest outfits that also fit her personality.”

  “Yeah.... The outfit,” she muttered. “I thought I’d forgotten how to shop, but apparently it came right back to me.”

  Even if Diane suspected they’d just had wild sex on the plane, he didn’t want Zoe to completely turtle. He tried to change the subject. “I hear we’re well underway to getting you on the company insurance plan. Have you set up any new appointments with your doctors?”

  It was Diane’s turn to seem taken aback. “We really don’t need to talk about that.”

  “Diane, you’re family now. Your health is of the utmost importance to me. I want to make sure you’re getting the best care, and I want to make sure that it’s finally taken care of. Zoe and I want you to keep on taking care of your health. Zoe is the world to me; you’re the world to Zoe. Would you do that for me?”

  Diane narrowed her eyes at Wade. “You are a charmer,” she said, almost as an insult.

  “Funny—your daughter says the same thing to me.”

  “Is there anything in particular you’re here for besides lecturing me about my health?” asked Diane, with all too familiar snark.

  “Mom, I just wanted to show Wade around a little bit. We barely had a chance to look around while we were here before he got called away on work. I just want to show him my room.”