Declan Reede: The Untold Story (Complete Series)

by Michelle Irwin

  “You need to give me something else first,” I said.

  “And what’s that?”

  With a smile, I tapped my lips. She leaned across the table and touched hers to mine for a brief second. Too brief. I couldn’t wait to be done with this night so I could take her home.

  A sigh escaped me as I watched her walk away.

  “Do we all get to pay the extra price?” It was Tillie who’d asked the question.

  I shook my head and offered her an apologetic smile. “I’m afraid I’m a one-woman man.”

  She looked surprised. “Even though I’ve seen it myself, I still don’t know that I believe it.” She looked toward Alyssa. “So tell me, what does she have that the rest of us don’t?”

  “My heart.”

  She laughed. “Some people might think that’s romantic, but between you and me it’s all just crap, isn’t it?”

  I scowled at her. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means that we all know what you’re like, Declan. You think it was your exceptional pulling skills that had me interested in the club?” She laughed. “You were a guaranteed lay, and rumoured to be a good one at that. The great Declan Reede screws around. That’s what he does. That’s all that he does. Even if you’ve forgotten that for the moment, it won’t be long before you remember. Maybe you just need the right women to remind you.” She raised her eyebrow at me as if I might change my mind at any second and beg for a repeat performance with her and her friend.

  I shook my head. “Nope. Never again. She’s it for me.”

  Tillie laughed. “If you say so.”

  She moved the glass of water I had stationed beside me to another part of the table and placed a shirt in front of me. She opened it out fully and showed me where she wanted the autograph. I complied quickly, mostly because I wanted her away from me as quickly as possible. Even after I’d finished though, she lingered.

  “Why are you even asking me things like that anyway?” I asked. “Aren’t you with Felix?”

  She gave a throaty, seductive chuckle. “He’s just my ticket in and a bit of arm candy. A girl can hardly come to an event like this alone.” She sighed, glanced around quickly and then leaned in close to me. “If you must know, it’s his sister, Talia, who holds my attention. You remember her too, don’t you? I just like a little dick every now and then. We both do in fact.” Her voice made no secret of the fact that she was actually giving me an open invitation to have a do-over of our fateful night in the club.

  “Well . . .,” I said, unsure how to end the conversation after her comment. “Good luck with that.”

  I signalled for the next person to come forward, cutting Tillie off before she could make another lame attempt at seduction. I took a sip of water before signing the keychain that was thrust in front of me, noting the odd taste in the water. Swallowing down the foul mouthful, I grimaced. There was a reason I never usually drank unfiltered water in the city. I had few other options though, at least until I was free to leave the signing table again.

  Twenty minutes later, I was finally finished and was able to leave to try to find Alyssa. I hoped I could convince her to go now that the official shit was done.

  When I stood, my legs almost collapsed beneath me and my head spun. I reached for the table, but my arm felt too long. My tongue felt heavy in my mouth.

  I tried to figure out what was going on, but my brain refused to work right. It wasn’t normal, and the sensation that something was wrong built within me. I took a step and stumbled. I couldn’t have been drunk . . . could I? I’d had two rum and Cokes with dinner, but that had been much earlier, and I hadn’t had anything more since then.

  Even as the thoughts chased each other through my mind, I staggered back toward Alyssa at our table. My stomach roiled and pitched with every step.

  “Declan?” she asked, her voice filled with concern. “Are you feeling all right?”

  I looked at her—trying to make the three Alyssas I could see combine into one. When I failed, I shook my head. “I think I need the bathroom.” My voice was slurred and unsteady even to my own ears.

  She placed her arm around my waist and held me steady as I headed for the bathroom.

  Pushing the door open with my shoulder, I stumbled inside and headed straight into a cubicle. At first, I vomited, then when I had nothing left to bring up, I heaved until my chest ached and my stomach burned. When I finally got myself under control, I wanted nothing more than to curl around the base of the loo and rest my head against the cool tiles, but the unhygienic nature of a public pissing hole turned me off.

  I struggled to get my legs under me again before dragging myself to the sink. Barely holding myself upright, I splashed my face with cold water. When I raised my head again, I was shocked by what I saw. My eyes were bloodshot and glazed. With rising horror, I recognised the face reflecting back at me. It was someone I hadn’t seen in a long time. A face I hated—the face of my darkest days.

  The walls started to close in on me, drawing closer together with every second. I had to get out of there. Staggering to the door, I pulled it open. I’d expected to find Alyssa waiting for me, but she wasn’t. Stumbling as I went, and unable to make out anything with the haze blurring my vision, I headed toward the front door. Even though I wasn’t thinking straight, it was clear to me that I needed some fresh air.

  “Declan . . .,” a voice whispered to me.

  I spun on the spot, almost losing my footing and narrowly avoided falling on my arse. I looked around to find the source of the voice. The door to the cloakroom was open a few inches, and the voice within called out to me once again.

  “Alyssa?” I asked, trying to work out whether the voice was actually in my mind or was coming from the darkened room.

  “I’m in here,” she whispered. Her voice sounded off. Deeper, and more infused with desperation than ever before. I wondered if it was the effect of whatever was flowing through my veins.

  Wanting to find Alyssa, I stepped toward the room, pushing the door open and taking a few steps inside before pausing and turning around. The door closed, and I looked to see who had closed it but my head swum too much to make out anything in the darkness.

  “Alyssa?” I repeated. I didn’t know if it was some kind of sick joke. I couldn’t understand why she would go into that room. She knew what’d happened in there with Darcy. Why would she want to share any time with that memory?

  “Come here, Declan.”

  I stepped back toward the door and suddenly lips were on mine. A warm tongue pressed forward, seeking entrance to my mouth. My lips parted slightly while my brain struggled to catch up.

  Something was wrong.

  Alyssa was taller than usual. A memory flashed in my mind of her sky high heels. Maybe that’s all it was. When I wrapped my arm around Alyssa’s waist to respond to her kiss, it seemed to skinny—too lean.

  Something was off.

  Something was stroking my dick.

  I moaned instinctively in response to the touch, but warning bells were going off inside my mind. In slow motion, my brain finally caught up with everything happening and it screamed at me that the touch was wrong. The taste was wrong. Whoever had their hand around my cock and their tongue in my mouth wasn’t Alyssa. That realisation left me reeling and I jerked away from the touch. Too quickly. All of my balance went out the window and I fell backward into a rack of coats. I retreated as far back as I could and shouted, “You’re not Alyssa.”

  Whoever was with me shushed me, but I couldn’t be quietened. Someone’d had their tongue down my throat and it wasn’t Alyssa. I wasn’t that guy anymore, and I didn’t want to be. I never wanted to be again.

  I couldn’t do that to her. My emotions spiralled out of control faster than my heartbeat raced.

  Through it all, I shouted for Alyssa. My voice didn’t seem to be making it through the swirl of noise around me, and I knew if I didn’t shout as loud as I possibly could, Alyssa would never hear me. She’
d never come rescue me.

  I held my hand up to shield myself from the light that started small but soon grew to encompass the whole room. People barged in around me. More and more spilling in until it was suddenly full. In all directions I saw men and women; some confused, some scared.

  My angel cut through the crowd and knelt in front of me.

  “Shh, Dec,” Alyssa—my personal angel—said. “It’s all right. I’m here now.”

  Without thought, I reached for her and rested my head against her chest. She held me tightly, and calmly directed everyone else to leave. There were murmurs of dissent at first but somehow she convinced them all to leave us alone for a moment.

  After a while she pushed me off her and stared into my eyes. “I’m going to ask you a question, and I don’t want you to lie to me.”

  “I never—” I was going to tell her I would never lie to her again, but she cut me off with a wave of her hand.

  “Just promise me.”

  I nodded.

  “Did you take anything tonight? Anything to take the edge off?”

  I shook my head.

  “Are you feeling okay now?” she asked.

  I shook my head again. “No,” my voice sounded broken, even to me.

  “Can I have your car keys? I want to drive you home.”

  I looked at her incredulously for a second. I wondered if she realised no one drove my car. Certainly no one else drove it while I sat in the passenger seat. The night of the drags, I had made a once-off exception for her.

  Regardless of that, I reached into my pocket and fished out my keys. I placed them into her hand, twisting her fingers into a fist around them.

  She stood and helped me up. As she led me from the cloakroom to the front door, I heard whispers all around. I didn’t know what they were saying, and frankly I didn’t give a fuck. I just wanted to go, to be home, with Alyssa. That, and maybe to vomit a few more times before bed. I had no idea who had lured me into the cloak room, but it was clear they’d intended on seducing me. Fucker.

  Why couldn’t people take, “I’m happy leave me the fuck alone,” as an answer.

  With her shoes off and carried in her hands, Alyssa supported me as we walked back to the carpark. As she unlocked the car, I rested against it and tried to stop my head from spinning. Alyssa came back to my side and she helped me into the car.

  I crawled into the passenger seat, leaning my head against the headrest as Alyssa fastened the seat belt around me. Even though I’d been worried about handing over the keys, I was too far gone on the ride home to acknowledge whether Alyssa was treating my car right.

  I didn’t even realise we were home until I woke up in bed with Alyssa fast asleep beside me the following morning.

  When I went to climb out of the bed, it became clear I still wasn’t fully recuperated from whatever had happened the night before. My hands shook and my head spun. My lips were dry, so I slicked my tongue across them. It didn’t help because my mouth was just as parched.

  Standing as still as I could for a few moments, I thought about the night before. The more I considered the way I’d felt, the reactions I’d had, the more certain I grew that I’d been slipped something. It was the only logical explanation, because I sure as fuck didn’t take anything. Nor had I had enough to drink to cause that sort of response.

  With a glance down at Alyssa, lying peacefully in the bed, a thought formed in my mind. Had she truly believed me when I’d said I hadn’t taken anything? Had our relationship really grown that strong again? Or did she think I was lying to her?

  I snuck out of the bedroom quietly. It was only when I’d made it halfway down the hall that I realised I was wearing nothing more than a pair of boxers. I didn’t know if Phoebe was at home or still at Alyssa’s folks’ house, but I was glad I had something covering my arse just in case.

  Heading straight for the fridge, I grabbed a glass of orange juice to get rid of the taste in my mouth and relieve my desiccated throat. It honestly felt like I’d spent the night licking an ashtray. After I downed my first glass of orange juice, I hunted through Alyssa’s pantry for some paracetamol, or anything that would at least reduce the throbbing in my head to a dull ache. I threw a couple into my mouth and downed them with a second glass of O.J.

  “You popping pills again already?” Alyssa asked from behind me.

  The sound of her voice startled me—I’d thought she was still fast asleep. I spun around to face her. Her words confirmed my fears from earlier; she didn’t believe me after all. She thought I’d fallen back to my old patterns. I had to convince her otherwise or she might run.

  “I . . . um . . . I really didn’t . . .” I shook my head furiously, fighting back the fear.

  Her face dropped and she stepped over to me quickly. “I’m sorry, poor choice of words. I know you didn’t take anything last night.” She pressed her lips to mine, and I relaxed into her. “At least not knowingly.”

  “But how?”

  “When was the last time you took drugs? And I don’t mean sleeping tablets or prescription medication.”

  I dropped my head to my chest and murmured, “Over three and a half years ago.”

  “Exactly,” she said, nodding. “I know you have . . . issues . . . with alcohol. But that wasn’t alcohol that made you act like that last night. I think someone might have spiked your drink.”

  I met her eyes and smiled slightly. The faith she showed in me was one hundred times more powerful than the doubt Josh and Curtis had brought back to the surface.

  “But what I can’t figure out is who or why?”

  I shrugged, too happy that she believed me to worry about the reasoning behind the sabotage. That was something we could worry about later. Closing the small distance between us, I cupped her face in my hand and brought her lips back to mine. She pushed her tongue forward into my mouth, and I was reminded of the surprise that was waiting for me in the cloakroom.

  My brow furrowed. The two events had to be connected. I told Alyssa about it—about the tongue and the hand. My heart broke as I watched her expression drop, and her brows pinch. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I needed her to know. Not only because it might be important to figuring out who the fuck slipped me something, but also because I didn’t want to lie to her. I didn’t want her to find out some other way and know I’d omitted the truth. When I finished, I explained that the kiss was the reason I was bundled in the corner of the cloakroom calling out for her.

  She placed her fingers over my mouth when I started to apologise for the fifteenth time. “It wasn’t your fault, Dec. You didn’t ask for it. I’m glad you told me though.”

  I pulled her close to me. “Let’s get all thoughts of last night out of our heads for a while,” I suggested. “What’s on the agenda for today?”

  “Work,” she said, with a grimace.

  “Of course,” I said. “Work.” The word was a curse as far as I was concerned.

  I stood staring into her eyes. “Where’s Phoebe?” I asked softly, leaning my lips down toward her.

  Alyssa’s eyes fluttered closed. “She’s still with Mum. I didn’t want to pick her up last night . . .”

  I’d heard all I needed to. Even though I was happy to have Phoebe in my life, I was a little relieved she wasn’t going to walk out of her room at any second. I closed the distance to Alyssa’s lips and kissed her fervently. I continued to step forward as my tongue battled with hers. Cupping her arse, I pulled her legs around my waist and walked toward the bedroom. If I only had a limited amount of time with her before she started work, I was going to make damn sure we got the most out of it.

  I didn’t stop walking until I hit the bed and tumbled on top of her. My lips went from hers to her neck, trailing kisses down to her sternum. My fingers worked the buttons on her pyjamas, pulling them open one by one. Each one that I undid revealed a new expanse of skin for my mouth to explore. Her legs remained hooked around my waist as she ground her hips up to meet mine and moaned in response t
o my touch.

  Leaning all my weight onto one hand, I used the other to start exploring. I kneaded her breasts before bringing one of her nipples into my mouth. I swirled my tongue around the tip, eliciting a panted “oh God” from Alyssa. With my eyes closed, enjoying every sensation, I moved to give the other side some attention.

  Alyssa’s hand came to rest on my chest, and then she pushed me away from her. I worried that it was because the memory of what I told her had happened last night was still too fresh.

  She stood, pushing me backwards, before twisting me around and pushing me onto the bed. She ripped my boxer shorts off in one fluid motion, and I sat completely motionless while I waited for her to execute whatever it was she had planned. She knelt down on the floor and pulled me to the end of the bed. Before I could really process what was happening, her mouth surrounded my cock.

  I threw my head back and groaned. The sensation of her warm tongue flicking across the top of my dick was fucking amazing. I grabbed a pillow and propped myself up, because I didn’t want to miss another second of watching myself slide in and out of her perfect mouth. The sight and feeling were enough to push me to the edge.

  “Fuck, Alyssa, you’re fucking amazing,” I whispered, my voice stolen by desire. She sucked the whole of my length in, and I felt myself brush against the back of her throat.

  When she pulled back, I stopped her. As much as I wanted her to keep going, there was something more I had a sudden desire for. I sat on the edge of the bed and wrapped my arms around her. I took a moment to explore her skin with my mouth again before pushing her pyjama bottoms off.

  “Come up here,” I whispered, pulling her hand to lead her onto the bed. I lay back down and guided her so her legs were straddling my shoulders. I licked her inner thigh while my hands ran up and down over her arse. She moaned at the sensation, but seemed to catch on quickly to what I wanted to do. While her pussy hovered over my mouth, she leaned forward and took my length back into her mouth. I hummed against her skin before turning my head to the other side and gently nipping the delicate skin near her perfect pussy.