Before the Lie (The Confession Duet Book 1)

by KD Robichaux

  “You were just now falling asleep? It’s like one in the morning,” he points out, and I hear him climbing stairs.

  I plop down on the bed, pulling my covers over my naked legs. “I haven’t been able to fall asleep very well since you’ve been out there,” I admit quietly.

  “Aw, Vi….” There’s a pause, and then I make out the sound of a door opening and closing before I hear his voice much more clearly, as he stops moving. “If you truly want me to, I will drive over there to see you. God knows I’d give anything just to hold you for even a moment. My 24-hour shift starts in two hours. And then after I get some sleep when it’s over, you and I are going to Six Flags. Just say the word, baby girl, and I’m there in thirty.”

  As much as I want to be selfish and tell him to come see me, even for a brief moment, just knowing he kept his word and called me the second he got in is enough to soothe me until I see him after his guard duty. “No, Corbin. That’s okay. Get you a nap in before your shift starts. I’m so glad you’re back. I’ve missed you terribly,” I sob the last word, the roller coaster of emotions in the past few minutes crashing down on me, making me feel weepy. I also just got off my period, so that could be a factor in why I suddenly feel like crying I’m so happy he’s home.

  “You sure you’re okay, Vi?” he questions, his voice soft and concerned.

  “I’m sure. I promise. I’m just being a girl.” I laugh, waving away his worry, even though he can’t see the gesture. “It really is so wonderful to hear your voice.” My own comes out dreamy as I lie back down, turning over on my side.

  “Yours too, baby. I can’t wait to see you. Just one more day and a handful of hours, all right? And I’ll be the only one here, guarding my empty building tomorrow, so I’ll be able to text you all day. Then I’m all yours for two days.”

  I hear shuffling, as if he’s removing his clothes then getting into bed, and heat fills my chest then spreads lower, thinking about the part of his body I’d caught a glimpse of in the climbing cave. “O-okay,” I reply, my voice coming out husky.

  “Vi?”

  “Yeah?” I breathe, my eyes closing, imaging what Corbin would look like right now, undressed and lying in his bed as he talks to me.

  “What are you thinking about that’s got your voice sounding like that?” he inquires, his own voice going low and deep.

  “I… I… I’m just wondering what you look like right now, is all,” I confess, my face heating to match the fire spreading toward the place between my legs. I cross my thighs, trying to tamp out the inferno starting to blaze there.

  I hear him exhale a moment, before he replies in his sexy, gruff voice, “I just took off my boots and my BDUs. I’ve been in the field for two weeks without an actual shower, but me and the boys jumped into the lake today, so I’m a lot cleaner than I was.” He groans, and I hear movement, as if he’s getting comfortable in his bed. “My whole body is sore from all the training we’ve done, and I’ve got a few scrapes and bruises from being out in the woods, but otherwise, I look just the same as I did the last time you saw me. Just… naked.”

  As he says the last word, my core clenches, imagining him lying there in his bed, a blanket with an outdoor scene beneath him, the glorious parts of his body I’ve already seen—those beautifully muscled arms, the top of his tattooed chest, his strong calves, the bulging head of his erection—perfectly clear in my mind’s eye, while my imagination fills in the rest I haven’t. “Oh….” I breathe.

  “What about you? What are you wearing?”

  God, the tone of his voice is like an injection of liquid fire into my veins as it makes a roadmap beneath every inch of my skin.

  I glance down, feeling suddenly naked, even though I’m in what I normally wear to bed. I can’t help but giggle. “My favorite lavender long night shirt and undies. Sorry, nothing special. Only thing sexy about it is the Victoria’s Secret label.” I roll my eyes. Could you be any more of a turn-off, Vi?

  He groans, a delicious sound from deep within his chest, and my cheeks flush. “No, baby girl. Sexy as fuck. Sweet and innocent, like you,” he whispers, and his breath comes out in a shudder.

  Is he…?

  “Corbin?”

  “Yeah, baby?” His voice sounds distant.

  “You… you falling asleep?” I ask, because there’s no way I could bring myself to ask if he’s doing what I really think he’s doing.

  “Far from it,” he exhales.

  I hold my breath, listening intently, trying to let the sounds on the other end of the line paint a picture inside my head. I imagine his perfect face, eyes closed, his lips parted, and then his chest rising and falling with every pant I hear. “Do you want me to let you go?” I offer quietly, feeling like a voyeur, as if I’m intruding on a very personal act. The feeling isn’t quite uncomfortable, but almost. Like I’m peeking in on something I know I shouldn’t, but I just can’t look away.

  “No,” he growls, and it sounds more like a command to stay on the phone rather than an answer to my question.

  “Well… what do you want to talk ab—”

  “Are you wet for me, Vi?” he groans, and my heart thuds in my chest.

  “Wh-what?” I squirm beneath my covers, feeling exposed and vulnerable.

  “I’m so hard right now, baby girl, thinking about finally seeing you, kissing you, wrapping you up in my arms. God, I can almost imagine the smell of you. Tell me, Vi, are you as wet as I am hard?” The question comes out as a demand, and my natural reaction is to give him what he wants. It’s always my response to him, wanting to give him exactly what he asks of me, no questions asked.

  “I… I don’t know,” I reply honestly. My thighs squeeze together, trying to relieve some of the growing ache there, the feeling still new, having only experienced it since I met Corbin, yet I have no clue what to do about it.

  “Touch yourself, baby. Tell me exactly what you feel,” he commands, and my hand grips the soft fabric of my T-shirt’s hem.

  “Corbin, I… I don’t know how to do that,” I confess softly, feeling awkward but completely turned on.

  “Vi,” he groans. “Are you telling me you’ve never gotten yourself off before?”

  “Of course I haven’t,” I whine. “I only started feeling any type of… anything down there when I met you. So why would I have ever… touched it?”

  “Oh, fuck,” he growls, and I bite my lip, thinking I’m somehow in trouble, which I know is ridiculous. After a few moments of listening to his ragged breath, I hear movement before he settles back down. “Like a fucking schoolboy. Swear to Christ.”

  “What’s wrong?” I ask, confused.

  “Your untouched little pussy, baby girl,” he tells me, and I suck in a sharp breath, my entire body flushing at the vulgar word. “You made me come just thinking about the fact that it’s never been touched, not even by you. I had wanted to hear you make yourself come, but knowing you’ve never done that is somehow even hotter.”

  I don’t know what to say. I want him to stop talking, to stop making me feel this way, but at the same time I don’t. I feel special instead of like an inexperienced freak. Desired. Alive.

  “I can’t wait to make you mine, baby girl. I’ll wait forever for you, but God… I can’t wait to feel you. To make you feel good. To bring you pleasure you’ve never experienced before,” he says quietly. Thankfully, he continues, saving me from having to stutter out a response. “But I’m going to pass out until my shift now. I’ll text you soon.”

  “Okay, Corbin,” I whisper. “Goodnight.”

  “Night.” And the line goes silent.

  I SPEND THE ENTIRE next day at Rock On, trying to pass the time by climbing while texting with Corbin between routes. We spend his lunch hour talking on the phone, excited about tomorrow. We plan on him picking me up bright and early to make the four-hour drive there. I tell him he should sleep in after his long shift, but he swears that five hours will be plenty, so to be ready around eight.

  I’m eati
ng the Whopper Mom brought me for lunch, when Sierra plops down on the picnic bench opposite me, stealing a French fry. “So… when do you want to start working?” she asks, popping the fry in her mouth.

  “Maybe after school lets out. The week Climbing Camp starts?” I suggest. “I want a week or two just to feel what it’s like being out of high school.”

  “Uh huh… more like you want a week or two to be at your boyfriend’s beck and call,” she teases, and I toss a fry at her face. She catches it and eats that one too. “I’m just playing. Speaking out of pure jealousy. Your man is freaking eye candy. You two must go at it like bunnies constantly.”

  My face heats and I look over at my mom, who’s absorbed in her book on the couch about twenty feet away. Balling up the wrapper that had been around my burger, I avoid responding.

  “Oh… em gee. Vi,” she hisses.

  “What?” I hiss back.

  “You’re as easy to read as a large-print book. Have y’all not done it yet?”

  “Uh…”

  “Vivian. Marie. Brown. How in the hell have you been able to keep your hands off of that?” she whisper-yells, leaning over the table. “You’ve been inseparable for almost three months!”

  “Well, seeing how I’ve kept my hands off everyone, including myself, it hasn’t been that hard,” I tell her quietly, and watch her face turn completely shocked. “Yeah, apparently that’s super crazy to people. Corbin had an equivalent response.”

  “You told your boyfriend that you’ve never masturbated before? God, to be a fly on the wall to see his reaction.” She shakes her head.

  “How the hell did we get on this subject? Why are we talking about my sex life? This is so not appropriate coworker conversation,” I say haughtily, cleaning up the bits of lettuce that had fallen off my lunch.

  “Oh, shut up. We’re much more than coworkers, and you know it,” she tells me, throwing a French fry at me this time.

  I look up into her pretty face, tilting my head. I hadn’t actually thought about it before, since I’ve never seen Sierra outside of Rock On before, but now that she’s pointed it out, I guess she is my one and only real friend. Conversation has always come easy with her. She’s always been incredibly nice to me, not a mean bone in her tall and curvy body. We’ve spent what adds up to be countless hours together over the years, just chatting and hanging out in the gym during my rest breaks. I don’t know why I never considered it before. Maybe because she’s a few years older than me, or the fact she’s married with a baby, at a much different stage in her life than I was, so I just never thought of her as anything more than an acquaintance.

  “Geez, Vi. I knew you were super devoted to your sport, but wow. How have you made it this long without ever double-clicking the mouse?”

  “Huh?” My eyebrows scrunch.

  “You know… tiptoeing through the two lips. Buffin’ the muffin. A little ménage à moi.” At my confused face, she finally hisses, “How the hell have you never fingerbanged yourself, woman? You’re eighteen!”

  I shrug, feeling surprisingly comfortable confiding in her, now that I’ve come to the realization I actually have a girlfriend to talk about this stuff with. “I never had a need for it. I never wanted anyone before I met Corbin. I was always so focused on climbing I never really paid attention to anything that would’ve made me… get an urge,” I whisper the last bit, even though there are no climbers near our table.

  “Hmm.” She leans back, reaching out and pulling the bag of fries with her, and starts to munch on them while she ponders something. “But you said you told Corbin about it. I assume you’re still a virgin then. Because now that I think about it, God knows you don’t spend enough time away from this place to even sneak in a quickie.”

  “Yes, I’m still a virgin. But….”

  “But what?” she prompts.

  I tilt toward her, my eyes squinting in concentration as I try to put into words what I haven’t spoken aloud. “I… I think I’m ready not to be,” I murmur, and her face splits into a beautiful smile.

  “Well, you couldn’t have picked a better guy to lose it to. The way he looks at you… gosh.” She giggles, shaking her head.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Aww. Sweet Vi. You really have no idea, do you?” At my disgruntled face, she chuckles and continues. “When that man looks at you… it’s like that emoji, the smiley face with hearts for eyes. Just like that. He’s totally head over heels for you. No question.”

  I bite my lip for a moment. “I mean… I hoped what I saw wasn’t just my imagination. But… really? That’s what you see too?”

  “Oh. Girl. Absolutely. And the way he wards off other guys with just that super sexy scary look. He’s totally marked you as his territory,” she says, waving her hand in the air nonchalantly.

  “What are you talking about?” I ask, genuinely having no clue what she’s referring to.

  “Dude. For real? I’m going to start calling you Cher, because you are totes clueless. When you’re up on the wall, and people come over to watch you, you do realize that you’ve got most of those guys bonered-up, right?” I cock an eyebrow, and she rolls her eyes. “There is not a guy who comes in here who doesn’t want to bang you against one of these rock-covered walls. They get one look at your tiny self going all Spidergirl, and their tongues practically roll right out of their heads. But ever since you and Corbin got together, one glance from him, and they all back away, exposing their vulnerable necks to him or some shit. He’s definitely an alpha. Ah-ooooo,” she howls, and I can’t help but laugh.

  “But like I said, if you feel you’re ready, there’s no way it would be anything but perfect. He takes such care with you now. I can’t even imagine how good he’d be to you intimately. Plus, I saw you two making out in the cave. Y’all’s nookie is going to be hot as fuck, giiiirl. Yaaas, honey!” she whisper-sings to me as she stands, throwing the empty fry bag into the brown paper bag all my food came in. She swishes her hips as she makes her way around to my side of the table, then leans down to my ear. “If you need to talk about anything, I’m always here, girlfriend. Muah!” She plants a hard kiss to the side of my head, and then prances to the front of the gym.

  I smile, warm all over from the sweet feeling of having a real friend.

  THIS MORNING’S REUNION with Corbin was almost painful. As he stepped out of his Camaro in my driveway, I slammed into him so hard that even he stumbled back a step as I wrapped my entire body, arms and legs, around him like a spider monkey.

  “There’s my girl,” he whispered in my ear, his arms wrapping around me to squeeze me to him. “God, I’ve missed you, baby.”

  I pulled back just enough to look into his eyes, so happy to see him in the flesh, and he reached up with one hand to pull my face down to his, kissing me right there in the driveway.

  We spent the day riding rollercoasters and eating giant turkey legs, but most enjoyable of all, just holding hands as we walked through the amusement park and flirting playfully while we stood in line for rides. Being the middle of the week, we basically had the place to ourselves except for a couple school field trips taking place there, so we were able to ride everything we wanted multiple times, and left before the sun went down.

  Halfway home, Corbin clears his throat and adjusts in his leather seat as he drives. “So… we got done a lot earlier than expected. Do you want to do something when we get back?” he asks.

  “Sure, like what?” I turn sideways in my seat, my left leg coming up beneath my right, and admire his profile. The masculine ridge of his brow countering the almost feminine pout of his full lips, his straight nose, and his killer jawline, which is now dark with a five o’clock shadow. I can barely look at him he’s so handsome when he’s clean shaven, but when he’s got that bit of facial hair at the end of the day, and even more on the weekends when he doesn’t have to work, jeez, he’s irresistible—if I would ever gain the courage to tell him I’m ready….

  “Well, there aren’t any movie
s out I want to see at the theater. Do you want to rent one and take it to my room?” he suggests, and my head tilts.

  “Like… at the barracks?” I question. When he gives me an, “Mmm-hmm,” I add, “I thought chicks weren’t allowed in the barracks.”

  “No, chicks in high school aren’t allowed in the barracks. But as of this past weekend, you are officially a high school graduate now, baby girl.” He smiles lightly and glances in the rearview mirror before eyeing me for a moment. “It doesn’t matter to me what we do. I’m just not ready for this day to end. If you don’t want to—”

  “No!” I cut him off. “I do. You just caught me a little off guard is all. I’d love to go see where you live.”

  He chuckles. “It’s nothing to see. But it is somewhere quiet and private we can go to just be by ourselves. I like having you all to myself.”

  My heart drops into my stomach and is swarmed by butterflies at the thought of being alone with Corbin… just the two of us… in his room… on his bed…. I glance outside, seeing on a sign we’re sixty-three miles from Ft. Vanter. A little over an hour before we get home—no, not home. Corbin’s room. Why couldn’t he have asked me this when we were closer? When I had less time to sit and dwell on what could happen while we’re alone… just the two of us… in his room… on his be—

  “Vi?” His deep voice reverberates through the interior of his Camaro. “No pressure, baby,” he tells me, staring into my eyes before facing forward once again.

  The tension in me releases somewhat. God, could he be any more perfect? It’s like he’s tuned in to me, sensing everything inside me, even when I know I do a damn good job of hiding it. But at the same time, he still hasn’t read my mind, broadcasting telepathically that I want him. Or maybe he’s receiving my mixed signals. My emotions are everywhere. I want desperately for him to take me, to make love to me, to make me his in every way. But the thought of it actually happening scares the shit out of me.