Kase Of Deception

by Riann C. Miller

  “Oh,” she says again, her nose scrunches in confusion. “Sorry for asking so many questions.”

  “Don’t be sorry. Ask me anything you want.”

  She sits up and turns her body my direction. “Anything I want?”

  “Yep.”

  Maybe it’s because we’re watching the game. Maybe it’s because she’s asked me a lot of questions about baseball, or maybe it’s because I’m fighting a major case of blue balls… Regardless, her question catches me off guard.

  “When were you planning on telling me the truth? I mean, if Annalise hadn’t shown up when she did, when were you planning on telling me?”

  I want to go back and renege my previous answer. Pizza, beer, the Dodgers…minus being stuck in this little crappy apartment, tonight felt perfect until suddenly my past sins were tossed onto the table. But this conversation needs to happen sooner or later, because I don’t want a cloud of doubt hanging over our heads.

  “Other than I would have, I don’t know for a fact when I would have told you.”

  Her eyes dim with disappointment.

  “When I first discovered my best chance of getting Anna out of my life was through her brother, which was ultimately through you, I immediately thought you were just as shady as the man you were about to marry. Using you as a casualty of war didn’t weigh on my mind. If anything, I justified my actions by convincing myself I was doing you a favor.”

  She huffs a frustrated breath. “I have moments when I understand where you were coming from and others where I wonder how the man I know could turn someone else’s life upside down the way you did mine.”

  I slip my hand into hers, thankful when she doesn’t pull away. “I didn’t break up a happy innocent couple with the purpose of running my own agenda.”

  She pulls her hand from mine. “I know that, but you didn’t exactly go about things the right way. Finding out that Carter was cheating on me the way I did and only weeks away from our wedding was embarrassing. It was like everyone already knew what I had already expected but still…”

  “I know and at the time, I’m not going to lie, it didn’t matter to me.”

  Her mouth turns down with a frown.

  “But then I met you and fuck…” I groan, remembering the way I felt the first time I looked into her eyes. The color reminded me of the ocean, and the tranquility that radiated from them cloaked me in a peace I hadn’t felt in years. Then she told me her name and… “I instantly knew I was going to hell.”

  Thankfully, her lips turn up.

  “I hate that you found out the way you did. And I’m sorry anything I had a hand in embarrassed you. But I’m not sorry for ending your engagement or for the fact that you ended up here…with me.”

  Her gaze dances around the room then back to me. “I’m not upset with the end result. If anything, I’m thankful I didn’t marry him but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I wish I had found out a different way.”

  But I needed a sure fire way of guaranteeing she walked away. “I have such mixed emotions where this topic is concerned. If I say I wish I did things differently, it feels like I’m wishing you away, and you, Delanie Charles, are the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

  She gives me a slow but radiant smile before climbing onto my lap and settling between my legs. Placing a hand on each of my shoulders, she looks down at me, not saying a word. I’m fighting the urge to grind my hips upward, seeking relief from the heat between her legs.

  “I don’t know what the future holds for us but I’m ready to take things slow and see how it goes.”

  Expecting slow to mean she’s not ready for sex, I’m caught off guard when she crashes her mouth into mine. Her hips rock forward while her tongue moves with mine.

  I’m so hard it’s almost painful but when she moans my name, I know there’s nothing I want more than being here with her. She breaks the kiss long enough to move her hands to the button on my jeans. My hips jolt forward long enough to push my jeans and boxers down. In one quick swoop, I slide her panties to the side, positioning her inches from my cock. Her gaze hits mine, and she doesn’t hesitate when she sinks down on me. A strangled moan rattles from my throat as her warmth engulfs me like a slice of heaven.

  “Oh, fuck, Delanie. I’ve missed this. Missed you.”

  “Me too,” she says through a pant. Her hips move up and down in a perfect rhythm. My hands find her breast. Leaning slightly forward, I suck one of her nipples into my mouth. “I’m close…” Her movements increase as her core clenches around me. Resting my head on the back of the couch, I watch as her mouth drops open as she tips over finding her release.

  Working my hips upward, I thrust in and out. A tingle starts in my balls, but I find myself fighting the urge to come. I’ve spent weeks imagining this moment and I want it to last.

  My movements increase, as do my breaths, but when she trembles around me, her pussy tightening, it’s enough to send me over the edge. My nails dig into her hips as I empty inside her.

  “Oh, God, that was amazing,” she grumbles as she slides off my dick and onto the couch next to me.

  Clueless to what I should do next, I sit here with my pants pushed down, my cock still out on display. I know what I want and it ends with her in my bed, but she hasn’t completely forgiven me, and I’m afraid if I push too soon, I won’t like the outcome.

  She tilts her head to the side, glancing at the TV. “The Dodgers won.”

  I smile. “Looks like it was my night.”

  With a dreamy smile, one I love looking at, she says, “What do you say we grab a shower then watch a movie?”

  I can’t stop myself from smiling because I was expecting to spend the evening alone but instead, I’m not only spending it with Delanie, it feels like we just took the first real step forward.

  Chapter Thirty

  Delanie

  I didn’t mean to sleep with Kase, but weeks of built-up tension spilled to the surface. I didn’t intend to stay the night or for that matter, the entire weekend. And I definitely didn’t mean to imply that all was perfect between us. But when I arrived home from work the following Monday, I barely have the door unlocked and my purse off my shoulder before I spot the opening in the wall. Apparently, he kept whatever keycard he made.

  Making my way over to his side of the apartment, my anger increases with each step. The entire weekend, he never mentioned the sliding wall or the fact that he still has a way to open it. Sharing a bed for several days does not translate into us living together.

  Stepping over to his side, my pulse spikes. After glancing around, not seeing him, I find the door to his bedroom slightly ajar. That’s when I spot him walking out of the bathroom with just a towel around his waist.

  “Hey, babe. I wasn’t expecting you for a few more hours.”

  I cross my arms over my chest trying my best to ignore the way his chest looks. “Is that why the wall is open? You were just snooping around my apartment and were going to close it before I got home.”

  His brows pull together. “Um…no… I wasn’t snooping through your things.”

  “Then why exactly is it open?”

  My anger momentarily takes a backseat when he drops his towel. Without a care in the world, he takes his time walking to the dresser where he removes a pair of boxers.

  “Why don’t you take a deep breath, relax, and then tell me what’s really bothering you?”

  My hands go to my waist. “You can’t be serious. That wall, being open, is what’s bothering me.”

  “Okay.” He slowly slides a pair of boxers up his legs. “What bothers you the most, the fact that it’s open or that I didn’t ask you first?”

  My mouth opens, but nothing comes out because the truth is he’s right. After the weekend we shared, I was expecting to see him tonight. I probably would have ended up in his bed, or at least, that’s how I figured our night would have turned out.

  “It’s one thing to spend time together, but it’s another to already be l
iving with each other.”

  He grins. “We’re not living together, not yet anyway.”

  “With the wall open, that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

  He closes the distance between us. When he’s within arm’s reach, he slides his hand into mine and walks us back over to my apartment.

  “Whether the wall is open or not is completely up to you.” He picks up a keycard lying on my kitchen counter. “This is the only card I had made, and I want you to have it.”

  My shoulders slump. “Oh…”

  “I’m all in, Delanie, and I have been since the first night we spent together. I tried to fight my feelings to no avail. If you walk away, I’ll keep following until I know without a shadow of a doubt that what we have is truly over.”

  Standing in a space smaller than most hotel rooms with a man who rivals every dream I’ve ever had—wearing only a pair of boxers no less—my heart doesn’t just fall. It shatters into a million pieces—pieces only this man is capable of putting back together.

  “You’re used to people not giving you an option about your own life, and I don’t want to do that.” He nods his head toward the wall. “Open or closed, that’s up to you.”

  Kase is domineering, assertive, and used to manipulating situations to his advantage and while he’s exposed me to that side of him, he’s also caring, compassionate, and most of all, he takes my thoughts and feelings into consideration.

  “I think…for now…I want it open.”

  He pounces faster than a cheetah, his mouth crashing into mine. His hands wrap around my waist while my legs wrap around his. Walking us straight to his bed, he softly lies me down. With his dark eyes melting into mine, he smiles. “If you give me the chance, I’ll spend the rest of my life proving to you I’m worth the gamble.”

  “You already have.”

  His smile widens. “Fuck, I love you.”

  I don’t say the words back, not because I don’t love him, because his mouth attacks mine before I have the chance.

  I’m just as scared as I was yesterday or the day before that, but my head has finally caught up with my heart and both are telling me I belong to this man.

  Brenna throws her head back and laughs loud enough the entire coffee shop is staring at us. “I’ve lived here for over eight years. You show up and without even trying, you score a TV deal.”

  “So, you’re not mad?”

  With her red hair pulled up on the top of her head in a messy bun, she shrugs without a care in the world. “Why would I be mad? That’s how the Hollywood game is played. No one is off limits.”

  Lynn doesn’t have me working traditional hours. Some days I’m there long after five while others I’ve done early afternoon. Today was an early day, so I suggested grabbing a coffee before Brenna was scheduled at the bar.

  “You seem…” She hesitates for a second. “Happier. Is your new job the reason for that, or does it have to do with a certain guy you were trying to forget?”

  “Both?”

  She claps her hands. “Yay. I’m so excited for you. He pulled a total dick move, but the way he looked at you...” She places her hand over her heart and sighs. “It was meant to be. He’s your forever.”

  My eyes bug. “You might need to slow down there a little. I know he’s filed for a divorce, but he could still be married for all I know.”

  “Nah, that’s just semantics. A piece of paper doesn’t mean shit. He wasn’t married in the way it counts.”

  “No, but he lied, and that counts.”

  She gives thought to my comment before replying, “It only counts if you can’t forgive him, and it looks like you have.”

  “I have but…” My gaze moves around the room then back to hers. “I’m scared.”

  “Scared of what exactly?”

  Leave it to Brenna to call me out on my bullshit.

  “He lied and not just about what kind of food he likes or how much money he makes. He had an entire life I knew nothing about, a life that railroaded its way into mine.”

  “I guess the real question is, do you think he’s still lying to you?”

  “No, but…” my voice lowers. “I didn’t think he was lying before.”

  Her eyes narrow. “Now who’s the one lying?”

  I pick up my coffee with a groan.

  “That guy dropped more hints than a kid at Christmas. He didn’t tell you what, but you knew he was keeping something from you.”

  He was secretive, tight-lipped, and all the while, he kept saying he wasn’t good enough, yet I choose to hear what I wanted because learning he was married was harder than finding out Carter was sleeping with his receptionist.

  “Okay, okay, okay. Enough about me. How’s Roan?”

  Her lips twist. “I wouldn’t know. I haven’t talked to him in weeks.”

  “Really?”

  She arches a brow. “He’s probably at home fucking his wife, laughing about the dumb bartender who believes anything she’s told.”

  “If he’s laughing during sex, then he must be shit in bed.”

  “Oh, God, I wish that was the case. It would have made walking away so much easier.”

  “Regardless, you’re better off.”

  She glances at her watch. “Thanks. I hate to cut this short but if I better go.”

  “Thanks for meeting me and for not being mad.”

  She slaps me playfully on the arm. “Right back at ya.”

  Kase

  Slow has never been my speed. I see something I want I go after it. Delanie, however, is the first exception and not just because she’s the first woman I’ve pursued. I want my ring on her finger. I want her last name to be mine. And I want to know when I go to bed at night, that she’ll be lying next to me.

  For the last week, I’ve been gifted with the third, but I want it promised, especially when I’m hours away from boarding a plane to New York, leaving her exposed to the unknown.

  Already knowing the answer, I decide to get the ball rolling in my direction. “How attached are you to this place?”

  Delanie, who arrived home from work shortly after three in the afternoon, stops messing with her phone and looks my direction. “Attached?”

  “With the wall open, your living space has more than doubled but…long term… What are your thoughts?”

  Lines form across her forehead. “Long term? Are we talking weeks, months, or years?”

  Years? Oh, hell no. “Weeks. Months at the very most.”

  Unlike the dread traveling through me, Delanie shrugs off my question. “I don’t know. Why?” she absently asks, her attention returning to the phone in her hand.

  “I have to leave…” I huff through my frustration. “Tonight.”

  Her eyes move to mine. “Tonight?”

  “New York has never been my cup of tea. I doubt it ever will, but that doesn’t change the fact that my company’s headquarters is there.”

  “And you have something you need to take care of?”

  “Yes.”

  At my answer, she finally sits her phone down, twisting my direction. “When are you leaving?”

  I wish I had a better answer like I was never leaving or drop everything and come with me, but I keep those thoughts to myself. She’s making a life for herself, one that isn’t going to allow her to drop everything for me, and the truth be told, I don’t want that for her. She has a life that’s separate from mine and that’s okay…it’s perfect even.

  “Tonight… In a few hours.”

  Her eyes widen, and her shoulders slump. I’d be lying if I didn’t say the look of shock that forms across her face is a welcomed surprise. I need her more than my next breath, but it’s nice to know that she might feel even a fraction of those same feelings.

  “Oh…I…Okay.”

  “I don’t want to or at least, I don’t want to leave you behind, but it’s important.”

  I’ve always loved my job, until now…until I was dangerously close to saying fuck it and ditching my responsib
ilities. “These apartments aren’t awful but they lack a lot to be desired.”

  “And you think we should live…together?”

  Fuck yes! “Well, aren’t we practically doing that already?”

  With her eyes narrowed, I placed my hands on her waist. “I want you, just you, but I hate leaving town with you here.” Exposed.

  She places her hand on my chin, her touch soothing me in a way I didn’t know was possible.

  “What do you think is going to happen to me while you’re gone?”

  My eyes close, dread filling them at the thought of picturing Bosa on a mission with a gun. “I’m not ready to imagine that. All I know is that at my house—our house—you’d be safe.”

  She holds my stare. “Our house?”

  “Yes, our house. That could be my house in Santa Monica, or we could look for something else, it all depends on you.”

  “Kase…” she breathily whispers my name.

  I’d do anything to keep her safe but instead of telling her that, I force a smile.

  “I’m not sure if officially living together is the answer.”

  “Why not? Give me a real honest to God reason, and I’ll listen.”

  Her eyes spark ominously. “How about the fact that we’re not ready? Or there’s the little detail that we haven’t known each other for long or I don’t know…” She flaps her hands in the air. “How about I’m figuring out how to move past your lies?”

  Her last jab felt like a knife to the gut, a self-inflicted wound leaving a scar I’ll spend the rest of my life vowing to never repeat.

  “I can’t make you forgive me any more than I can take back what I did. And I get that while you’ve moved past what happened, that doesn’t mean you’ve forgotten.” Fear that I might push her too far takes over but instead of backing down, I forge forward. “You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t wanting to move past this.”

  She looks up at me through her lashes. Her long hair is in waves around her face, but the second her eyes water, I want to take my comment back. “I think I’m in love with you, but I’ve never been in love before.”