Love, Lies, and Deception(22)



Alec shrugged. “I just call ’em like I see ’em.”

He used the same words I used on him the first day I met him. Rolling my eyes, I took a seat on his couch and he joined me, still only in his towel. It was distracting.

He sat so that he faced me, and I was tempted to drop my phone so I could peek under the gap in the towel. How lame was that? I chastised myself. Although, I was pretty sure he’d lose the towel if I asked him to.

“What makes you think Kristian has a thing for me?” I asked curiously. Kristian had made some suggestive comments to me over the years, but I knew he was joking; he’d never tried to touch me inappropriately and had plenty of chances to try.

Leaning forward, Alec rested one hand on my thigh and tilted my chin up with his other. He was so close I could see tiny gold flecks in his blue gaze. It was mesmerizing, and I found myself falling, relaxing into the mold of his body.

“I can see it in his eyes, Marissa. He may not have put the moves on you … yet, but he’s sure imagining it. It’s not possible for a guy and girl to be just friends, especially with someone like you.”

Furrowing my brow, I asked, “So … if you’re saying you couldn’t be friends with a girl, what am I to you exactly?”

He tilted his head to the side and grinned. “Hmm … let me see. You’re definitely not a friend, you’re something more, but I’m sure we’ll come up with something.”

My eyes lit with humor. “How about f*ck buddies? Friends with benefits?” I suggested sarcastically, secretly hoping he didn’t really want to refer to me as those.

Alec furrowed his brows in concentration before shaking his head. “No, I don’t like those. How about we just go with the flow and see where this leads us? No pressure, no commitments … just us.”

It was all so casual, not something I’d ever done before, but it made perfect sense. Did I want another commitment so soon? No, I didn’t, but what if that changed. What if I got attached to Alec and he didn’t want me that way? All I knew was that I wanted him, and he wanted me. For the moment that had to be good enough.

“Does that sound good?” Alec asked softly, moving his hand higher up my thigh.

My breath hitched as his touch made me instantly wet between my legs. Closing the distance, I pressed my lips to his and lightly bit his lower lip, pulling on it gently with my teeth. He groaned and grabbed my hips, guiding me closer.

Letting go of his lip, I whispered, “It sounds perfect to me.”

“How long do you have before you need to leave?” He kissed my cheek and caressed his lips down my jaw to my neck. I know where this is going to lead, I thought, letting my inner Marissa jump up and down in excitement.

“Four hours. Why?” I asked teasingly.

Growling, he swiftly picked me up off the couch and carried me to his bedroom. “That’s all I needed to know,” he muttered, kicking open the bedroom door. In three easy strides he made it to the edge of his bed and lowered me down before he went back and shut the door. I gazed around his room with open curiosity.

I ran my hands over his bed; it was soft and colored in blues and gold’s, reminding me of the sunset on a beach horizon. A surfboard was propped up against the wall in the corner, and there were framed pictures of surfers riding the waves just like he had on the walls in the living room. Other than that it was kind of bare, but neat with two dressers on both sides of his bed, and it smelled heavenly … just like him.

“Are you done surveying my room?” Alec asked humorously.

I giggled. “Yes, I’m done. Your room’s interesting, but I guess I thought there’d be more of you in here. A key to your mystery.”

He laughed. “Most of my personal things are still in California. I didn’t have time to pack up all of my stuff.”

I opened my mouth to speak, to ask him why he had to leave in such haste, but he cut me off by placing a finger to my lips. “Please don’t ask right now. I promise to tell you soon, but right now I want to enjoy being with you; to finish what we started this morning.”

Staring into his blue orbs, he removed his finger and I lost all sense of time or reason. I gave in to him.

After kicking off my shoes, I moved farther up the mattress and rested my head on one of his pillows. Alec crawled on the bed and laid on his side beside me, propped up on his elbow.

He traced the hem of my shirt with his finger, lightly grazing my skin underneath. Chill bumps fanned out over my flesh, making him smile. “I love that my touch does that to you.”

I bit my lip. “Trust me, it does a lot more than that,” I admitted boldly. “A lot more.”

Groaning, he rolled over on top of me and parted my legs with his knee. “Yes, I know what it does. I got a taste of what my touch did to you this morning.”

His blue gaze was smoldering hot, and my core throbbed with the remembrance of his mouth exploring my body. Alec’s lips brushed mine, softly at first, but then turned demanding, as our tongues twisted together.

“I want more,” he rasped, reluctantly breaking away from the kiss.

“Then take it,” I breathed back. I didn’t have to repeat it because he was on me in an instant.

My nipples were hard and ached to be touched, and I was already panting with need. My gaze bored into Alec’s with my own longing and heat, demanding that he take the ‘more’ I offered. Taking his face in my hands, I bit his bottom lip and moaned while lifting my hips against him.

L.P. Dover's Books