Beautiful Deception

by Addison Moore

  “Tomorrow sounds great to me.” I move in an inch, and he does the same. “Do gentlemen traditionally kiss their dates?”

  His cheeks twitch in lieu of a smile. His electric blue eyes bear into me like heated sirens. “They sure do.” Abel leans in, closing his eyes, and I memorize the magic of this moment. His lips touch over mine, soft as summer rain, and I open for him like a flower. Abel is in me, dominating me, loving me with that lashing, thrashing, oven-heated tongue. His fingers secure themselves over my hips, and the impression of each fingertip stokes the fire in me ten times hotter than before. It’s safe to say that Abel McCarthy’s shining gift is loving women with that oven-hot mouth of his.

  A deep groan rips from me, working its way up my throat, and Abel strums a quiet laugh that reverberates through us both. My hands find their way to his chest, and I take in the hard lines, the cut ridges of his abs, his lats as they circle around to the smooth skin of his back. Abel is built like a brick, like a linebacker, a wrestler. And if his body weren’t amazing enough, his ability to invoke the beginnings of a very promising orgasm in me is like nothing I have experienced before.

  My legs circle around his, before riding up and wrapping themselves around his back again. I can feel his hardness growing, and I can’t help but smile. This is where we should be. There is no doubt in my mind that Abel and I are destined to be together in the most delicious, primal way. My hand glides down to his trunks, and he catches me as if I were a criminal.

  “Whoa.” He backs up, panting, that smile still twitching on and off like a Christmas tree light. “I’m a gentleman, and you are a lady.” He frowns into this as if both were the greatest offense, and, at the moment, they are.

  “Well”—I pluck my hand free from his stronghold—“I guess that will have to wait for another time, too. A gentleman eventually gives in to the desires of a lady, does he not?”

  Abel sighs as he glances skyward. “That he does.” He sinks below the waterline and wraps his arms around my waist, speeding us back toward the falls.

  “Abel!” I scream, laughing hard as he runs us through the wall of water over and over again.

  Abel and I lounge in that aqua marine bath, we race one another from one end of that emerald lagoon to the other, we float on our backs and count the stars as they make their appearance. We hold hands and float in and out of those beautiful falls as if it were our job, our destiny. But best of all, Abel and I exchange soft, fervent kisses like a gentleman and a lady—like a couple of overzealous teenagers.

  Abel is reshaping my world one precious kiss at a time. He’s reshaping the idea of who I am and who I want to be—who I should have been all along. He makes me feel beautiful, safe, and wanted. A trifecta of emotions that no one since my father, my mother, has been able to invoke in me.

  Abel has infiltrated the deepest, darkest corridor of my heart, and that’s the most dangerous place of all to linger.

  I should know.

  After all, there is a body count.

  Abel

  Bitter Hearts.

  I stare down at the text Caleb sent. Dinner at the Blue Crab at five before we head out. You can squeeze in with us if you want.

  I text back. I’ll drive. See you in a few.

  I tap the phone in my hand a second. Last night at the falls things got pretty heated with Zoey. As much as I want to believe it was just two people messing around, it wasn’t. First off, I’m not the messing around type. While my frat brothers were dipping their wick into any coed that would have them, I was already with Elizabeth, all but engaged at that point. The engagement came later, but it turned out that it didn’t mean much after all. I swear that entire nightmare was enough to break me, make me give up on the fairytale that is love and all of its heart-shaped trappings, but Caleb and Kennedy—what they share can’t be denied. My parents didn’t make it. Elizabeth and I sure as hell didn’t make it. But it’s looking like Caleb is the exception to the rule. Whether Caleb realizes it or not, he’s always the exception to the rule. Caleb has great instincts, and Kennedy is perfect for him. I’m not sure I would have mapped them out on paper, but maybe it’s the ones that don’t pencil out too well that are meant to be. Elizabeth and I penciled out. We made sense on paper, and yet she’s had another man’s child and I’m in Loveless feeling sorry for myself. Scratch that. I’m not feeling sorry for myself. I’m just waking up from a long-drawn-out nightmare and perhaps discovering that I’m not who I thought I was. I’ve been someone else, someone better all along. At least that’s the version I choose to believe. It’s the version I’m spoon-feeding Zoey.

  I shower and dress and head on over to pick her up for our next official date in which I try my best to hide the hard-on this girl has the power to invoke in me time and time again. The door opens before I hit the porch, and Zoey gives a spastic wave before stepping outside and knocking my heart, dick, and my balls right off their pedestal.

  Zoey is a vision in a short white dress that clings to her like nobody’s business, clear heels I don’t believe I’ve ever seen in my life but, hot damn, they’ve already sent my boxers twitching—and that face. Zoey looks as if she should be ruling the world by way of magazine covers, not running down to Colony Hall to check out some defunct band who had their fifteen minutes, decades ago. I’m positive she shouldn’t be with me. I’ve never dated girls like Zoey, but the more I’m around her, the more I appreciate the idea. Zoey is far sweeter than her va-va-voom persona lets on.

  “You are a vision in white.”

  “You approve?” She bounces over with those delicious glossy lips expanding as she throws her arms around me and lands a kiss to my cheek. “I’m hoping afterwards I can drag you back to my place for a little alone time.” She gives a sly wink. “Get your mind out of the gutter. I was hoping you’d go over some of my sketches and paintings with me. See which ones I should give up for the auction.”

  “Done.” I wrap an arm around her waist as I help her into the car. “And for the record, my mind was nowhere near the gutter.”

  “You are a damn liar, Abel McCarthy,” Zoey breathes the words right into my face, and for a moment, I envision my tongue tracing out the inside of her thighs.

  She called it. I’m a damn liar.

  We head down to the Blue Crab where we meet with Caleb and Kennedy, Ace and Reese already seated at the table and they give a jovial cheer when they see us.

  “Look at you!” Reese pulls Zoey in as she takes a seat next to her. “You look like you should be up on that stage tonight. I’m shocked Gavin lets you out of the house.”

  Zoey trembles out a laugh at the thought of her brother. “I’ve never been good at letting a man control me.” Her eyes cut to mine a moment before she continues a conversation with Kennedy and Reese.

  “What’s up?” Caleb stares over at me a bit more intense than usual. “Everything going good?”

  Ace shakes his head. “Dude”—he leans in with a whisper—“you’re not really together with her, are you?”

  I look to Zoey as she shares a laugh with the girls, and my heart warms at the idea of being together with her, being paired with her in general.

  “We’re just hanging out. Having a good time.” I chug down half the water set before me. “We’re keeping each other company, that’s all.” I know for a fact Ace and Gavin are good friends. Not that I’m holding back on some big confession or anything because there’s nothing to confess. Yet.

  The waitress comes by and takes our orders, and in a bout of uncalled-for euphoria, I announce that dinner is on me.

  “In that case”—Caleb closes his menu and hands it back to the waitress—“give me the most expensive thing you’ve got. In fact, super-size it.”

  Everyone at the table shares a laugh. Dinner is lighthearted and all around great. Zoey sparkles as she commandeers the conversation, peppering it with just the right amount of wit and intellectual questions. As much as I wanted to write her off in the beginning as just another pretty face, I’m pl
eased to see that she’s a well-rounded woman. A great find. And something about acknowledging this for the first time shakes me on some level. For so long I hadn’t even considered being with anyone but Elizabeth.

  “So, Abel”—Reese leans in—“any chance you’ll ditch Collingsworth and move to Loveless forever?”

  Zoey twists in her seat as if she’s suddenly interested in this as well.

  “I don’t know.” I glance over to her, and her smile thaws my frozen heart. “It’d be a drive to the office.”

  “One we can share,” Caleb toasts me with his water. “Face it. The air’s just cleaner up here.”

  Kennedy purses her lips. “Moving to Loveless is like moving to the moon. It’s so isolated. I bet a big city boy like you could never get used to that.”

  “Are you kidding? That’s why I love it so much. Isolation feels like a gift.”

  Kennedy cackles out a laugh. “Are you kidding? Nobody loves it unless you were born here or you’re running from something.”

  The table grows quiet a moment as if waiting for a confession. I asked Caleb not to fill her in on what happened—partially because at the time it was still happening. She knows enough to be dangerous, though.

  “I guess I am running from something.” The silence thickens, and Caleb sharpens his stare over me. I can practically hear him saying don’t do it.

  “Running from myself,” I say, and the table breaks out into another bout of laughter. Dinner comes and the girls talk amongst themselves, but it’s those concerning looks Caleb keeps tossing my way that have me on edge.

  “What’s going on?” I glance to Ace a moment before looking to my brother.

  “Just what you said. It bothered me.” Caleb tries to shrug it off.

  “Dude.” Ace shakes his head at his friend. “He’s a grown man. He can take care of himself.”

  “Can you?” Caleb asks before shoveling another bite of that Kobe beef into his mouth. Last time I offer to foot the bill around my brother.

  “I most certainly can, and I am. I’m in a better place. Things are looking better than I hoped they would.” I steal a quick glance at Zoey. She’s beautiful, smart, down-to-earth, and funny. How am I just seeing that tonight? I’ve been around her for weeks. I guess I’m slow in that department. Throw a beautiful woman at me, and suddenly I’m dumb, deaf, and blind. Everything in me stills a moment as I take her in. Zoey is remarkable. The perfect package. It feels as if the scales have fallen from my eyes, and I see her now for the gift she really is.

  “She’s not on the market,” Caleb whispers, and both Ace and I huff a dull laugh.

  I lean in and whisper right back, “What the hell has gotten into you?” Whatever it is, it’s pissing me off.

  “You,” he hisses right back before leaning in closer. “You’re on the rebound, dude. You’re hurt, and hungry—everything looks good right now. You need to take a step back. Do not. And I repeat, do not hit the midnight buffet.”

  Ace groans as he tips his head back. “She’s just a kid.” He nods my way as if agreeing with my brother.

  The girls break out into laughter at the other end of the table, and I’m thanking God Zoey isn’t party to any of this.

  “She’s a woman.” I grin her way like a hungry alligator. “She’s not a kid, and neither of us is made of glass.” I glance to Ace. “Maybe don’t tell Gavin that last part. I’m not looking to have my ass handed to me by a lumberjack with muscles the size of tree trunks. I’m not hurting anybody. I promise you this is chaste. Nobody is walking away from this in pieces. That was my last relationship. I’m not up for a repeat. This is two friends having a good time. It’s innocent.” More or less. And I’m predicting that will come to a spectacular end, but I’m not up for sharing that tidbit.

  The two of them slump in their seats, each assessing me as if they have a predator on their hands.

  “Keep it innocent,” Ace grumbles before getting back to that rack of beef on his plate, but Caleb stares at me with those saline eyes.

  “Liar,” he practically mouths the word as his lips curl up on the sides. Caleb has always been a master at gifting a disproving grin, and tonight I’m getting it right from the source.

  We finish up our meals and opt out of dessert to get down to Colony Hall on time.

  All the way down, Zoey and I talk about our childhood days at Lake Loveless.

  It’s easy. It’s bliss like this with Zoey. I can feel her attraction toward me, and its powerful pull—an aphrodisiac like no other. I’m in. Whatever this is, it has sucked me under and there’s no way out. There never is a good way out of a riptide. Zoey’s attraction, her heart, is stronger than the ocean.

  I am in trouble around this girl.

  I hope I don’t live to regret it.

  I can’t do that twice in one lifetime.

  Colony Hall is bright, open and filled with enough middle-aged people to assure you that the eighties were a very long time ago. The women all look great, markedly put together. The men are balding, with pouched yellow bellies that hang over their belted chinos. But everyone has a drink in their hand and a smile on their face, assuring one another this blast from the past is going to be a damn good time.

  We take our seats, not the nosebleeds, but not the orchestra pit either. It’s a perfect view of the stage, of the audience. Zoey and I sandwich ourselves between the two couples with Caleb on the other side of me. Both Ace and Reese, Caleb and Kennedy, hold hands and whisper amongst themselves, stealing kisses in the open as is their right. But something about seeing it—seeing couples soaring to that magical nirvana that I thought I was once a part of makes me long to have that again. I miss it.

  “I love this!” Zoey gives my arm a deep squeeze. “I’m in it for the people-watching as much as I am for the music.” Her fingers lace around mine, and my heart lets out a quick thump. I had just spent the better half of dinner trying to convince both Ace and my brother that nothing was happening between the two of us, and here we are holding hands in the open. But I like it. I’m not a kid. Caleb isn’t my father. I can hold the hand of a beautiful woman if I want to. It’s innocent enough.

  Those kisses Zoey and I have shared sear through my mind. Those may have been just a little more than chaste, but I’m not too worried about that either. Caleb isn’t some authority figure I need to hand in a report of what my dick has been up to.

  I startle for a minute. I don’t know why I just dragged my dick into this.

  “People-watching happens to be one of my favorite sports.” I pull her hand in and kiss the back of it, stunning us both into silence for a moment. I couldn’t help it, though. It felt natural. There’s something about Zoey that gets my heart racing in a way I haven’t felt since I was a teenager. That pretty much sums up how I feel around her, carefree and wild—having a good old time that to some people might be questionably forbidden.

  Her eyes sparkle in the light as they widen, as aqua marine as the water at the falls. Zoey giggles softly as the opening band starts in, and we sit back taking in the show—our hands still openly conjoined.

  Caleb nudges me, and I turn my head to find my brother’s brows raised as he glances to Zoey. His hard stare darts to our hands. A part of me wants to laugh.

  “I’m just enjoying the show,” I shout above the music, and he winces as if I struck him. It’s true, though. I’m enjoying the hell out of it with this gorgeous woman by my side. Everything about Zoey is easy. Being with Elizabeth was the equivalent of climbing a mountain with an eighty-pound backpack weighing me down—always dressing the part, playing it up for the world, trying to bury our misery under the radar. And then, like a lightning bolt it hits me. It truly was miserable with Elizabeth. I never wanted to admit it. We fit. We were the perfect couple who knew all the right people and went to all the right parties. We had our future mapped out before us, bland as oatmeal. And for the first time since that horrible day we severed ties, I feel an overwhelming sense of relief.

  The Bitter H
earts come out, and the entire auditorium jumps to their feet as a raucous applause roars throughout the hall. Zoey and Kennedy bump hips as they dance up a storm to the band’s opening number, but I’m not paying attention to the band. Heck, I can’t get my head around the music. All I see is Zoey. After a quick set, we settle in our seats as the music grows mellow and so does the crowd. Zoey plays with my hand as she watches the stage, mesmerized, making tiny looped patterns with her finger over my palm. The band drones on, but I’m already out of the hall and halfway back to Loveless in my mind—all I can think about is racing this girl to the nearest bed.

  This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen. My plan of action was never to seduce Zoey—never to have her seduce me, even though she’s a natural in that arena. It was to kick-start a friendship with someone who seemed just as lonely as me, and here we are, hand in hand, my dick at the ready. It doesn’t look like I can do a damn thing right.

  She spins into me, those catlike eyes of hers poised to claim their victim, her little pink tongue doing a quick revolution over her lips. “I’m thirsty.” She nods toward the exit. “You want to come with me?”

  Something in me says don’t do it. I’m too amped up. Maybe it was the wine I had with dinner. Maybe it’s the nostalgic music bleeding through the speakers. Or just maybe it’s the fact that both Ace and Caleb have deemed her a no-fly zone. Nevertheless.

  “Let’s go.” I lean in over. “Anyone want a drink?” I make the obligatory offer as I rise out of my seat. No takers, so I help Zoey navigate through the crowd, with my hand tucked in the small of her back on the way to the concession stand.

  Zoey stops short and pulls me into the first hall we come by and ducks us behind a darkened partition.

  My arms find their way around her waist. “Are you taking the long way? Or is this how you get a beer around here?” My face comes dangerously close to hers as her eyes glint in this dull light, pale as the sky on a clear Loveless morning.