The Deception series boxset: FaCade, Cadence, Beneath Innocence (54 page)

I was clean from a shower but still felt dirty. The sticky, hot blood stained me. I wished this was all a dream. It felt like I had fallen asleep and woken up in a role of one of my characters.

I lay there for an hour and decided I couldn’t take the sweet aromas filling the air any longer; my stomach was eating itself.

I made my way towards the delicious smells and voices of Amy and Cade. Music was playing from an iPod and Amy was miming the lyrics to a Beneath Innocence song. They looked so at home together in the kitchen cooking. I couldn’t blame him for seeking comfort in her. I had been fucking his brother, I couldn’t really condemn him for needing someone, but the pain still stung worse than any other.

The doorbell rang causing both of them to lift their heads from the preparation they were concentrating on. Cade grinned at her and she slapped his shoulder playfully, rolling her eyes. God, I felt like an intruder, looking in at a happy couple playing house. She was so freaking nice too. Always helpful, and so lovely and attentive to me. How could she be that way if she had feelings for him? I wanted to attack her with nails, rake her hair out and gain back what was mine but she acted so fond of me. Was it an act?

Damn, I was so paranoid, lost in my mind. I hadn’t even noticed she had opened the kitchen door wide and I was exposed to them both. She was now two centimeters from me, smiling up at me like a housewife from the 50s. Her hand came up to my face, making me flinch back.

Her pretty pink lips popped open. “I’m sorry, you have a stray strand.” She reached forward again and this time I let her and smiled my thanks, although I didn’t mean it.

The doorbell rang again and Cade whipped her ass with a tea towel, making her squeal and rush for the door. His gaze lingered on mine as I watched her disappear.

“What are you thinking?” he asked, coming into my space. The hint of strawberries from his breath enticed me to move closer. I looked over his shoulder and saw he was slicing strawberries.

“I get it,” I said boldly.

His lips lifted into a smile. He was gorgeous. How did I ever win his attention? “Get what, baby?”

“Amy.”

He shook his head in confusion then nodded when he understood me. “Oh right, yeah. She tries to be respectful of your boundaries but there is something there and it’s hard to fight.” I felt my face drop, and with it what was left of my damaged heart. Ice washed through me, freezing over my soul. His huge palms gripped my face. “Faye, she would never do anything. You look ill.”

“I . . . can’t . . .”

He chuckled but it was a nervous one. “Babe, she has a girlfriend and she’s not all of a sudden going to jump you. She’s always had a thing for you. Damn, most of the world has. I didn’t think it would make you that uncomfortable.”
Wait. What?

“Hey, you two, sorry to interrupt. This is Michelle, my girlfriend.”

Holy shit! Knock me down with a feather.

I reached out to shake the blonde woman’s hand as she bit her lip and jittered in front of me. “I’m a huge fan.” She giggled, “Amy refused to bring me over so many times because she was worried I would fan girl on you.”

My mouth was wide open, my eyes as wide and round, but no matter how much I tried to pull back my surprise, I couldn’t.

“Are you okay?” she asked, concerned as she looked over the imperfections on my face; the bruises and cuts from Frank.

I snapped my mouth closed. “Oh, I. . . .”

“She just came from set, it’s make-up. Now stop being nosey and let’s go,” Amy said. I gave her a small thank you smile. “I’m sorry, we have a dinner date and then I rushed over and . . .”

“It’s fine, Amy. Michelle is welcome here with you anytime,” Cade told her.

We waved them goodnight. Cade burst into a full out belly laugh.

“You son of a bitch!” I slapped his shoulder. “All this time you let me think she had a thing for you!” I screeched.

“I like you being jealous, it’s a turn on,” He smirked but then tensed and frowned. “I’m sorry I shouldn’t.”

He was afraid sex would be a topic that made me freeze and withdraw but he was so wrong. I didn’t feel like a rape victim. In that moment, I felt like a survivor. We had been through so much, done so much. We were accessories to murder now. News spread about Dante’s suspected death in the fire and the media had been stalking both mine and Cade’s houses. I didn’t want the life he stole me from anymore. I wanted a new one.

“I want to paint,” I announced, taking Cade by surprise.

“Okay.” He nodded encouragingly. “I have some of your equipment in one of the spare rooms.”

I giggled and shook my head. “I mean, as my job. My full time job.”

Placing his hands on my shoulders he looked deep in my eyes, searching them before his lips lifted into a breathtaking smile. “I want that too.”

He meant our dream. The one we planned to have before all this. We would buy somewhere remote and far from the spotlight.

I returned his smile, its intensity making my jaw ache when it turned into a huge grin and I struggled to hold back the happy tears threatening to spill. Enough tears had been cried for many lifetimes and now was the time for food. “Feed me!”

He chuckled and pulled me into the kitchen.

IT HAD BEEN EIGHT WEEKS since escaping Dante. My poor agent who I had promoted before I went back to him was looking at me like I had grown two heads. “You want me to cancel all contracts?”

“I’m having a change in direction.”

Theo was never found and after witnessing Dante murder Delia it was clear how capable of murder he was, and it gave me some comfort to know Theo was at the bottom of the ocean with Delia. They were sick people. A search was never launched for him. Documents from his recovered home computer had various offshore accounts on them, and plane tickets to Mexico. Kenny was leaving breadcrumbs just in case anyone did look into him dropping off the map.

I wrote my agent her final paycheck and added a juicy bonus that made her eyes and mouth pop open. She hugged me for a beat longer than acceptable and that was it, the last thing I needed to do.

My house was sold and everything I wanted to bring was packed. I didn’t want to take any furniture, just some sentimental knick-knacks I had collected over the years. Everything there felt tainted by Frank and Dante.

I pushed through the large glass door for the last time and breathed in the fresh air, placing my oversized glasses on and walking to my car.

Cade would be home today. He’d had to go and help Jenson with something and was gone for a couple of nights. He made Kenny come and stay with me and as much as I loved him for everything he did for me, the image I walked in on when I first went to him for help played on repeat whenever I looked at him, and I blushed every time.

It took a few weeks for my wounds to heal, and the faint scarring on the top of my thighs from my own nails would forever be a reminder of what I went through, but Cade still looked at me like I was the most precious jewel he ever laid eyes on. He was reluctant to push me past kissing, and on occasion heavy petting, and I was going out of mind burning up for him. I knew everything that happened was just as hard on him and he also needed time, but sleeping next to a man carved to perfection was a kind of torture that was worse than any I had endured. His hair had grown a couple more inches and was long around his perfect face. I loved running my hands through it while he lay in my lap just watching a movie.

Beeeeep! Shit! I put my foot down on the green light and giggled to myself for zoning out at the traffic lights on thoughts of Cade.

I arrived back to his house and let myself in, dropping my bag on the stacked up pile of boxes by the front door. Kenny wasn’t around, thank God. I told Sed, my bodyguard, who came in behind me to take the rest of the day off and made my way upstairs to shower. Cade still had me shadowed by a bodyguard which was necessary with my fans and the media.

I washed the day off my skin and stepped out of the shower, groaning when I saw no towel. We had packed most of the house up, only leaving the essentials, which according to Cade, was one towel to share. I had thrown the towel on the bedroom chair after last night’s shower.

I pulled open the door and jumped a mile. A naked Cade stood there. I soaked him in, his tattoos coloring his strong muscular physique, his breathing causing his abs to ripple like a wave on the ocean. His hard cock was standing to greet me, a canvas with my name stamped there.

He didn’t speak, he just walked over to me and pulled me by the wrist. Pushing my wet body down on to the mattress, his weight came down on top of me, his hard muscles pressing against my skin.

He ground his hard erection in to my pussy lips, causing a moan to rip free from my chest when it rubbed against my clit.

“You’re so beautiful, Faye.” His hands grasped the back of my neck before slipping up into my hair. His lips tasted mine in a frenzy of unrestrained lust. He broke the kiss to look me in the eye. “Put me inside you, baby.”

I bit my lip to stop the intense passion and love I felt exploding in a torrent of tears and I love yous. I dragged my nails down his back before slipping round the front of him and gripping his hard length in my small hands, I stroked him a few times, worshipping the feel of him again in my hand.

His forehead came down to rest against mine so we could look down and watch our bodies join. I guided him to my opening and then wrapped my legs around his waist and dug my heels into his ass, pushing him inside me.

He slid in to me, both of us releasing a moan of satisfaction. His girth stretched and filled me in the most intoxicating way. Every part of me could feel him. His flesh molded to mine as we moved together, our eyes never leaving each other’s.

I felt the muscles of his ass flex under my heel as I pushed him in deeper. His lips flanked mine as his elbows rested either side of my head to keep him from crushing me with his weight. I couldn’t stop touching him. I never wanted to stop touching every naked inch of him.

He shifted upwards, cupping my waist. Rising to his knees, he brought me down on his hard cock so I was sitting on his lap. His arm wrapped tightly around my waist as the other cupped my chin in a firm hold. He held me hostage, adoring my mouth with his tongue and teeth. Our sweat guided our writhing movements. I lifted my hips and snapped them back down hard, grinding forward, then up and back down. My nipples rubbed against his chest with every thrust, his hips jerking forwards to meet me. It was getting harder and harder to breathe with my erratic panting. Warmth filled me, the fire in his eyes igniting me in an inferno of lust and need. I couldn’t get close enough; I couldn’t get him deep enough. He fed my appetite by dropping the hold on my face and moving between my thighs to pinch and caress my clit. My inner walls squeezed him, my body tensing and releasing the built up orgasm with cries of pleasure bursting from my lips as he followed me over, crying out my name as his hand dug into my skin just enough to leave a light mark.

He lowered us back down, his tongue lapping over the light spray of sweat glossing my skin. “I always remembered how your body tastes after sex but the memory doesn’t do you justice.” He shivered against my skin. His lips danced kisses down my torso before he dropped between my thighs, lifting my ass up so he could bury his face in my pussy. I was still sensitive so just his breath breathing sent me swirling. His tongue pushed inside me and then up to my clit. He lapped at me, devouring the release we just had together.

“And now that you’re mine, so completely, our joining tastes even better.”

I looked down at him, his eyes full of so much adoration as he looked up at me. My emotions swirled and I sucked in my lips as I tried to stop it from consuming me but when the sight of his own tears dripped down his face, I couldn’t stop the torrent releasing. He leaned over the bed and slipped something from his jeans pocket. Bringing my hand up, he looped a piece of thread over my ring finger.

Cade shook his head, his own crying now matching mine. “I know we’ll both forever miss the Dante we knew as kids. He was your first love, and he was my brother. But you know,” he whispered as he climbed onto the bed and huddled me into him, keeping hold of the thread in one hand, “when we were kids, we made a promise to each other.”