Undisclosed Desire (The Complete Box Set

by Falon Gold

  “I don’t know one single man that would settle for being just your friend when you’re as beautiful as you are inside and out.”

  “Well, that’s not my fault is it?”

  “It sure isn’t. But I have to ask, are you ready to go back to Utah because you want to get in my pants, my Lisa?”

  “You’re damn straight I want to get in your pants. I haven’t done a tenth of the things I wanted to do to your body yet, and I have years of not getting into your pants to make up for.”

  “Same here, and we will. But we tried making love before dating, remember? How about we try dating before making love this time?”

  I yelp, “What? That doesn’t make any sense. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to get in your pants? So long, I got tired of waiting and got a damn makeover to attract someone else. There’s no way in hell I’m giving up your body, Apollo. You’re just going to have to get to know me in between making love to me.”

  He throws his head back and laughs at my desperation. I’d find it funny too, if it wasn’t my desperation that he was laughing at. Finally, his mirth winds down.

  “Do you know how refreshing it is to know someone who just wants me for my body? But I wish you’d take my gifts, too. You’re the only woman I know who I want to have both... along with my heart.”

  “I’ve been waiting on your heart, Apollo. But can we negotiate about the gifts? I take enough of your money from you just by working for you.”

  His smile vanishes. “No, we can’t negotiate. You earn your paycheck, and whatever I do for you extra makes me happy, or I wouldn’t do it.”

  I smile stupidly. I'm not supposed to be this happy about someone wanting to do things for me, but I am. It’s the ultimate proof that he truly cares, but I need his body more than his gifts. “So, you’re just going to take in this relationship? Not give me one thing that I want out of it?”

  He leans in until his mouth is only inches from mine. “If your idea of ‘just going to take in this relationship’ means giving you everything I think you deserve, then yes, I’m just going to take in this relationship.” And then, his mouth is on mine before I can bargain some more.

  That’s one way to shut me up.

  The pressure of his lips against mine is enough to cook the air around me. His tongue tangling with mine is enough to make every fine hair on my body stand on end. A hard pole emerges between my thighs, stroking the most sensitive part of me there, while pressing against my pelvis. My hips grind against his on their own.

  Apollo moans in my mouth then sucks my tongue deeply into his. It feels the same as being taken by him, which rockets my body’s need to cum up to much higher than I can stand while being fully-clothed. When he tugs gently on my bottom lip with his teeth, goosebumps rise along my arms inside his jacket as if I’m cold, but I’m burning up inside. I tilt my head back and groan, with my eyes shut tightly.

  Desire clanging just as loudly inside me as my heart is. I’m feeling too much, and I need relief. He releases my lip, pulls my hips into his, trapping his erection and my hardened nipples between us and torturing me.

  “Fuck! Apollo, I need you, sweetheart,” I hiss against his mouth.

  “You got me, sweetheart.”

  I softly nip at his chin with my teeth and pull him even closer until his chest melds with mine.

  “No, Apollo, I need you inside me.”

  His arms slide inside the jacket, around my waist, and begin to massage my spine.

  “No, my Lisa, we’re going to do this right and get to know one another. I’m going to make you accept the world from me before I give you what you want the most from me.”

  “You, Apollo. Just you.”

  “It’s not just me, baby. I’m a whole package, and the things I want to do for you are the most important part. It’s what makes me the man I want to be.”

  He wants to be a provider. This is as important to him as the air he breathes.

  “And that’s why you were so angry in Vegas because you thought I was rejecting the most important part of you?”

  “Yes. So, I’m going to give you time to decide if you can compromise for me. If you can’t, I’ll understand and I’ll get out of your way. I hope you decide to let me do whatever I want to for you. Because I can’t give you the fairytale life with castle, princes, and princesses if you don’t let me.”

  “That was a low blow, Apollo,” I say patronizingly, with a grin on my face. “You’re using the things I want the most from you to get what you want. I knew you were a tease, but I didn’t want to believe it.”

  “I’m a businessman,” he says arrogantly, while grinning back. “Giving you everything that you want so I can get what I want is the name of my game. Waiting for it just makes the win even greater, baby.”

  “You’ll spoil her if you do that,” Uncle Tommy warns from behind Apollo.

  Apollo pecks me on the nose. “That’s the plan, Mr. Owens.”

  “Call me, Tommy. Frank is the old guy.”

  The little privacy that Apollo and I had is gone. I groan and purse my lips. Staying here with him and my family is going to be an even bigger nightmare than I thought. I’d rather run his company single-handedly than be subjected to my family’s nosiness.

  Apollo steals a kiss from my lips before backing away. “You sure she isn’t already spoiled? I’ve never seen her pout before.” The absence of his arms is felt more and more with each step he takes.

  Tommy leans against the edge of the opened doorway that he’d managed to sneak out of, with a grin on his face and his arms crossed over his lean chest. He dips his head at me and cocks a slightly bushy eyebrow.

  “Apollo, that woman is half Lydia’s, half Frank’s, a walking contradiction that you’re trying to tie yourself to. They taught her to spoil herself rotten because nothing in this world is free. I’m going to start praying for you now, my brother. But for now, if you two want anything to eat, I advise that you get in here now because Blake is not giving up this bacon. Next, he’ll have the eggs and the toast, and we’ll be eating each other. Blake gets his way, no matter whose house he’s at.”

  Apollo stops reversing to look back at my uncle. “Are you kidding me?”

  “Not even in the damn slightest,” he deadpans, and that’s about as serious as Tommy gets.

  Tommy pushes off the doorway and reenters the house. When Apollo extends a hand to me, I push off the railing, and take it in mine. He turns sideways then drops my hand, to drape it around my hips and haul me side-to-side with him. When we walk inside the house, only then does he allow me to step away, so he can close the door behind us. I drape his coat on the back of the couch beneath the front windows, where it came from.

  Derek is still standing and eye-fucking my aunt Chrysalis, while the battle of the pork is still raging in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. Blake is still the sole possessor of the platter.

  He points a piece of bacon at my aunt. “Same for you, Aunt Chrys. If I ask for it, you’ll give it to me. Why bother with the whole argument we’re having?” Then he pulls the platter closer to his chest, by enclosing it completely in the arm wrapped around the edge of it.

  Chrysalis throws her hands up in the air and rolls her eyes heavenward. “He’s a twenty-six-year-old brat, plain and simple, Lydia.”

  Lydia scoffs beside her, and waves a hand between them. “And we all equally share in the blame for that, Chrys. Now give me the plate, Blake.” She reaches out for it.

  He turns sideways. “But, Mama O, I need it. You know I don’t eat this well at home and I’m single. Have some pity.”

  Derek begins to laugh then takes a hurried seat on the couch, his ability to stand giving out under the weight of his hilarity. Even Apollo laughs at a pleading Blake. Lydia tosses her hands in the air and blows air heavenward, as well. Chrysalis spins on her heels and vanishes into the kitchen, with Lydia following closely behind her and shaking her head. Blake looks at me, with his bright blues and a wide grin on
his face, having won the war.

  I point at Blake and look sideways at Apollo.

  “This is his family,” I say dryly. “I’m just black and the biological daughter.”

  Apollo grabs my pointer finger and pulls me in his arms in front of everyone. “I have all the bacon you want, love.”

  I lean close to whisper in his ear. “It’s your sausage that I’m interested in, Mr. Ford.”

  He pecks me on the nose and strokes a stray lock of hair laying across my forehead. “In due time, love, I got you. You are so not like other women, my Lisa. I have so much more to offer you.”

  “No, she’s not,” Blake says, suddenly standing in front of us, with a whirlwind of emotions snapping in his eyes. “She deserves the best of everything, and I, as Sheriff Powers, will make sure she gets it.” Then he extends the platter of bacon to me, after identifying himself in an underhanded way. I suspect he’s issuing a warning for Apollo, who raises an eyebrow.

  I’m more surprised that Blake offered me his food. “You’re actually going to give me some of your food? You usually steal mine.”

  “And if you tell anybody that I gave you some, I’m putting you back on the no-fly list at the airport.”

  “Seriously, Blake!”

  I never knew he’d taken me off, and he’s already threatening to put me back on it. Like I said, he’s a harmless bully, and I his helpless victim.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Derek sinks toward to the loveseat, holding his chest with one hand and guiding his way down with the other, before laughter rockets out of his mouth.

  “No-fly list, Malisa! Tell me...” he struggles to speak between deep chuckles, “...your brother is joking, right?”

  Apollo frowns.

  I sigh. “No, Derek, he’s not joking because he’s an—”

  “Hey!” Blake hollers around a mouth full of bacon. “I’m getting called an ass after offering you my food? Now take it before I change my mind.”

  I grab a piece off the platter before he does just that.

  Blake spins around on the heel of his boots, grumbling under his breath, “Sisters! Such a pain in my ass.”

  “Mama!” I yell, “Blake’s cussing!”

  He spins back around and snatches the piece of bacon from my hand, which I should’ve eaten before indulging the childish need to tattle in good fun.

  Then he tosses it back on the platter and stands before me, with his massive chest heaving and an extremely irritated look on his face.

  “I know why you tried to get me in trouble, Malisa. It’s because I’m white and adopted.”

  I step out of Apollo’s arm to stop in front of Blake. I stand up on tiptoe and kiss him on the jaw. It’s the only thing that stops the rant he always goes off on whenever he doesn’t get his way, or wants us to think that he’s feeling like an outcast. I step back to Apollo’s side and lean into him.

  “By the way, Blake, officially, you’re not adopted. We just choose to love you.”

  He grins and offers me another piece of bacon. Derek succumbs to another round of chuckles. Apollo’s forehead creases with wrinkles. I don’t have to be in the office to know when something is worrying him, but I decide to get to the bottom of whatever it is after we find some more time to ourselves.

  For now, I refuse Blake’s offer with a shake of my head, while snickering. “You’re a damn Indian-giver, Blake. Keep. It.”

  He shrugs, while eyeing the meat in his hand, and then he bites it before walking away, going to probably steal more breakfast items from the kitchen to go with the platter of bacon, which he’ll munch on all day long.

  Apollo watches him leave, then looks down at me grimly. “He’s a brat.”

  Derek laughs harder. With the tilt of my head toward the couch, I motion for us to do something that I’ve only done twice in my life, sit down in the great room.

  Once Apollo has settled beside me, with his arm wrapped around my waist, he asks, “How long has Blake been in your life?”

  I shake my head and feign a frustrated sigh.

  “Since he was seven. His parents invited mine to their yearly charity function for cerebral palsy, since my father’s a pediatrician. They started talking about their kids. My mother found out that Ashley and Martin had a child born with the disorder at birth and didn’t survive, and that they were leaving Blake with anyone that would take him, whenever they needed or wanted to take a trip. The au pair they’d shipped from England... well, I guess that makes her a governess, but she’s still a nanny to me, got tired of raising Blake and quit when he was five. Lydia offered to babysit him, essentially offering him another family. Ashley took her up on it, not knowing my parents any better than you would a can of paint, or if we were a bunch of axe-murderers. Fortunately, for Blake, we’re not. I wonder about my mother sometimes, though. She’s nothing to play with, but he’s been tormenting me ever since.”

  Apollo looks off, into the kitchen, where Blake disappeared to. “You two are really close then?”

  “We were, about as close as my mother finding us in bed together was, without ever being romantically involved. But I haven’t seen or talked to him since he had an argument with his parents after he graduated high school and wanted to go in the army to pay for college. His parents suddenly wanted him close. I guess since he wasn’t a burden anymore, they thought he’d join them in their lifestyle, continuing the dynasty of Powers that have reigned in Arrow for generations and opened most of the ski resorts that are known worldwide. I’m sure that’s how he got the position as Sheriff at twenty-six. But they screwed up and let Lydia and Frank get their hands on Blake first. He’s just as independent as I was raised to be... when he isn’t making us love on him that is. The only way to stop him from talking about he’s white and adopted is to kiss him on the cheek. You should see how arrogant he looks when my mother and I both do it together.”

  I see Derek sit up from the corner of my eye. “And you’re jealous, Apollo.”

  Apollo’s eyes snap to Derek. Suddenly, the tension that was missing between the two, when they found Blake and I in the bed together, is flooding the room. I sit up beside Apollo, whose expression is dark, his eyes imitating daggers.

  “Yes, I am jealous, Derek. I should’ve been the one sleeping with her last night.”

  I swallow loudly. Somehow, I knew Blake and my mother’s actions would come back to bite me in my ass, which is not damn fair. Why isn’t it biting them in theirs, too?

  “You couldn’t have wanted to sleep with her if you left her in Vegas this weekend,” Derek responds before I can think of what to say to check the situation before it gets any worse, which it just did.

  Derek shifts on the loveseat, placing his spine flat against the back of the chair and crossing his arms. The air pulls tight around us. The cold creeps in from the outside.

  Apollo leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees spread slightly apart. “Why are you even here?”

  Derek shrugs. “Visiting my friend.”

  “Your friend!” Apollo’s voice rises an octave. “You don’t even know her, and you just wanted to date her four days ago. Now you’re friends? Well, you can go home now. Malisa and I are fine and she has me to check on her.” His ire rises right along with his tone.

  I get even more worried. Apollo and Derek are big men, and I see no way of keeping them apart if the situation escalates anymore. This would be a good time for my family to be all up in my business, or for Officer Powers to show up. Even bratty Blake putting in an appearance with his platter of stolen bacon is alright with me.

  Derek hardens his expression and leans forward, while working his jaw. “I settled for Malisa’s friendship when I realized how much she was hurting over you. Even after meeting her just four days ago, I can see she’s a good woman. You had four years to learn that, and still screwed it up. But no man can win against heartache for another man, unless he doesn’t mind being a rebound. Since I like being first in a woman’s affections, I learned my place in
her life quickly and came to make sure she didn’t spend all day and night crying over you. And while I hoped you saw what you were losing, now I hope you crash and burn, jackass!”

  Apollo stares not at Derek but through him. “Jackass? I’m not surprised that you’d stoop low to name-calling since you slithered into Malisa’s parents’ home the minute I wasn’t around.”

  “Apollo,” I called worriedly. “He’s didn’t—”

  “Are you calling me an opportunist?” Derek cuts me off then stands up.

  Apollo gets to his feet. “I’m calling you a snake.”

  “Derek, you should leave,” I say quickly before he can respond.

  The argument wouldn’t have started if he hadn’t provoked Apollo, and I didn’t see a satisfactory end to it or either man backing down anytime soon. I step in between them though Derek is several feet away, but I don’t know how long that’s going to last.

  Derek reaches for his coat that’s laying on the back of the chair he was sitting on, without taking his eyes off Apollo.

  My mother walks into the room, to stand beside me. “Derek’s my guest now, baby girl, and I’m only the one who raises hell in here fellows. Disrespect my house again and you’re both out. Start getting along right now. You should take Apollo into the dining room, Malisa. Derek follow behind them… slowly.”

  Before I can ask my mother what she meant by Derek being her guest, she walks away.

  Apollo reaches for my hand. “She’s right, sweetheart. Even serpents have a purpose, and he should stay so he can see for himself that you have a man who isn’t going anywhere no matter if I’m in the area or not.”

  Derek snickers under his breath, taking the jab well. I risk a glance at him. He winks. I get suspicious and take my first breath. Like I said, men are not worth the trouble. But I want Apollo, anyway.

  A moving shadow on the floor snags my attention. I look up at a smirking Blake, lifting more bacon from the confiscated plate to his mouth, while he leans against the doorframe. Officer Powers is officially on duty. I blow him a kiss, for being willing to save my ass and my mother’s furniture if shit got real in here between Apollo and Derek. I’m just not sure if Derek was ever going to let it get that far or if my mother’s intervention wasn’t timed. As soon as I catch her alone, I’m going to find out if it was, and if this argument was a setup, too.