TRUTH (5 page)

I’d been in ropes a few times. Ian preferred cuffs and chains, but some of his friends liked to use rope. I knew from experience that pulling against the bindings caused marks and sometimes pain.
 

It also didn’t get you free.

Stephan removed the ropes from John’s ankles. He leaned back and stood as soon as John’s feet were clear of the rope. Before John could reach down and see the damage, Tom and the other man each took hold of one of his arms, pulling him to his feet. John began to resist.
 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. I still owe you for earlier, and I’d love for an excuse to pay you back,” said the man I didn’t know. There was a devilish smile on his face. John paled slightly.

The two men practically carried John to the door. He looked back at me as they left. There was sadness in his eyes, all the anger from before gone. For a moment, I was reminded of the man from my childhood. The man who’d taken me to the park and pushed me on the swing as high as it would go until I was squealing at the top of my lungs. The man I didn’t know anymore.

The door shut, removing John from my view. Stephan crossed the room and pulled me into his embrace. I let out a sigh of relief. He was home. We were alone. I circled my arms around his waist and rested my head against his chest.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

I nodded, letting the warmth and comfort I’d been seeking seep into me.
 

For the longest time, we stood there, holding each other. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feel of him, the smell of him. Every now and then his lips would brush against my hair, my temple, and I’d relax a little more. Being in his arms was the one thing that felt right.

I could have stayed there all night, but all too soon, he pulled back. He placed a hand on each side of my face and brushed his lips against mine, giving me the gentlest of kisses. “It’s dinnertime. I’m going to order us a pizza. We can watch a movie while we eat.”
 

I nodded. He stepped back, and I felt empty and cold when he walked across the room toward the phone. As much as I hated to admit it to myself, I was disappointed. Pizza meant we would be spending the evening on the couch. All I wanted was to spend the rest of the evening curled up with Stephan in his chair. I didn’t care about the movie, and I wasn’t all that hungry. I just wanted him.

Chapter 4

Brianna

He had me select a movie from his collection for us to watch. I took my time, but he was patient with me. In the past, I had stayed away from the romantic comedies I’d used to favor. Action movies didn’t make me think of all the things I could no longer have. As I ran my fingers over the titles, I realized that might not be the case now. I wasn’t sure what one would call my relationship with Stephan, but I knew that I cared for him. I loved seeing him smile, happy. I wanted to do everything in my power to see him look like that as often as possible.

I continued to argue with myself, unsure of what I should select. There was no right or wrong answer, I knew that. He wouldn’t get upset with my choice no matter what it was. I just needed to pick one. The problem was, without his touch to calm me, I was beginning to feel numb. What did it matter what movie I picked?

The telephone rang in the background, and I heard Stephan answer it. The pizza was here, and I still hadn’t chosen. Pressing my lips together, I closed my eyes, trying to concentrate. I could do this. Looking back at the rows of movies, one I had barely noticed before stood out, almost calling to me. It was a movie I hadn’t seen in a long time, one that brought back a lot of memories.

Stephan wrapped his arms around my waist, making me realize I’d been standing there much longer than what I had thought. I leaned into him, letting my eyes drift closed. Feeling began to return, and the numbness started to fade. He hugged me closer, trailing his nose down my hairline to my neck and placing a kiss there. I sighed.

“You seem to be thinking very hard about something. Tell me.”

“I was thinking . . . I was thinking about my dad.” My words came out not much louder than a whisper, but I knew he’d heard me when his body tensed.

“What about him?”
 

Even though his tone didn’t show any agitation, his body couldn’t hide his reaction to the mention of my father. I hated that I’d upset him, but I knew better than to lie.

“I miss . . . I miss the way he used to be. When I would visit him, we would watch movies sometimes. We were always trying to find ones we’d both like.”

He didn’t respond right away. Instead, he reached out to touch the movies, his fingers grazing over the ones directly in front of us. “You found one you used to watch with your father.”

I nodded.

“Which one? Show me.”

I lifted my arm toward the bookcase where the movies were lined up in neat rows. When I came to the movie in question, I indicated that it was the one and quickly dropped my arm. Unfortunately, Stephan reached for my arm and guided my hand back to the bookcase. Together, we pulled it off the shelf.

“Is this the one?”

“Yes.”

He turned me around to face him and tilted my chin up. “Your father likes baseball.”

I nodded.
 

I couldn’t remember how old I’d been the first time John and I watched
A League of Their Own
. The movie hadn’t been new, but it had looked interesting enough to both of us that he’d rented it from the local video store. We’d liked it so much that he’d bought a copy of his own. It had become sort of a tradition, and we’d watched it together almost every time I came to visit. I hadn’t seen it years. Not since before my mom had died.

He released my chin and stepped around me to put the movie into the player. Once he turned everything on, he reached for my hands and led me over to the couch. To my surprise, he already had everything laid out and ready. The pizza sat on the coffee table along with plates and two glasses of water. I’d been lost in my head again and hadn’t been paying attention. He would be so disappointed in me.

We sat down, and I lowered my head, placing my hands in my lap.

“What’s wrong, Brianna?” He brushed my hair away from my face so I couldn’t hide.

“I wasn’t paying attention.”

He was quiet. I had no idea how he would react. It wasn’t the first time I’d gotten lost in my thoughts. Every time he caught me, he stressed the importance of paying attention to my surroundings. He’d even taken away my books once.

“You think you deserve to be punished?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered.

Stephan leaned back and pulled me into his arms. I rested my head on his chest and began playing with the buttons on his shirt.

“Thank you for telling me.”

When he didn’t add anything else, I felt I should say something. “You’re welcome.”

He chuckled.

I looked up into his face. He stared down at me with amusement.

“You had a very stressful day, sweetheart. Although I do wish you would pay more attention to what is going on around you at all times, I do understand that it’s not always going to be possible. Life is not black and white. There have to be exceptions.”

“You’re not . . . disappointed?”

“With you not paying attention? No. Not at all.” As soon as he finished speaking, he kissed me. The kisses began with his lips barely touching my forehead, and slowly, as he worked his way down to my mouth, he increased the pressure. With every kiss, my heart rate accelerated, and I felt that now-familiar heat in my belly. Thoughts of my father and everything that had happened that day faded into the back of my mind.

I slid my hands up his chest, his neck, and into his hair, feeling the silky texture beneath my fingers. He pressed his lips against mine, dipping his tongue inside my mouth. I held tighter, trying to get closer. It seemed I could never get close enough to him anymore.

He grasped the back of my neck, pulling us apart. I frowned. I didn’t want to stop.

Stephan laughed.

“Don’t look so disappointed, Brianna. We both need to eat.” Then he pulled me back against him, harder than before, and placed a solid kiss on my mouth. “And I promise you, there will be more time for this later,” he said, rubbing his thumb against my bottom lip.

Reluctantly, I nodded, and we both sat up. He reached for the pizza and placed a piece on each of our plates before handing me mine.
 

There were several parts of the movie I’d forgotten. Although some scenes did remind me of my father, I found myself getting lost in the story. There were times I laughed and even a few where I cried. At one point, Stephan leaned down to whisper in my ear, “There’s no crying in baseball,” mimicking what Tom Hanks’s character had said earlier in the movie. It made me laugh. By the end, I remembered why I’d always liked it so much. It wasn’t really about baseball. It was about friendship.

He put the movie away when it was over, and we both took our plates into the kitchen. Stephan shoved the pizza box into the refrigerator and then walked over to circle his arms around my waist.
 

“Time to get ready for bed.”

I nodded.

He stepped back, and I immediately felt the loss of his heat against me. Without a word, he took my hand, and we walked into his bedroom.

Stephan

After the stressful afternoon Brianna had, I wanted to make the evening as relaxing as possible. We needed to talk about what had happened with her father, but that could wait. She was already stressed out. Making her relive it so soon after wasn’t something I wanted to do. While waiting on the pizza to arrive and Brianna to pick out a movie, I’d sent Jamie an e-mail letting her know I’d be in late the following day. I’d also asked her to send a security company over first thing in the morning to install a camera outside my door. What happened earlier would never happen again. I wanted a video panel installed that would be motion-activated from the outside and display anyone standing outside our door. The peephole was obviously not enough.

When checking my phone, I’d noticed a missed call from my lawyer. I listened to the message, but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t already figured out on my own. Jonathan Reeves had lost his tail. Reeves deserved some credit. He must have realized he was being followed, and once he’d gotten free, he’d worked quickly. I’d need to call Oscar eventually, but tonight was about Brianna and making sure she was okay. Instead, I’d sent him a quick text letting him know I received his message.

There were still a lot of unanswered questions, like how Reeves had gotten into our home. There were no signs of forced entry, so I had to assume she’d let him in on her own. It was obvious, however, that she’d not welcomed his arrival. So how had he gotten through the door without breaking it down?

Once we were inside my bedroom, I brought her to stand at the end of my bed and began to remove her clothing. I didn’t stop until she was completely naked. She was beautiful and sexy and absolutely perfect. I cupped the back of her head, twisting her hair around my hand, and pulled her against me.

Feeling her body pressed to mine, seeing the trust in her eyes, was a high I couldn’t explain. Her trust meant more to me than any gift I’d ever been given, and I hoped I’d never lose it. She deserved everything in life, and I wanted to be the one to give it to her.
 

Her nipples hardened as she swayed against me, and my body responded. I had no idea if I’d ever be able to resist her. Sex wasn’t what I was setting out to do tonight. I wanted to give her pleasure, yes, but I wasn’t worried about me. She was what was important. She was always what was important. Her needs had to come first, and tonight, she needed to forget about everything.
 

I ran my free hand down her back and cupped her ass. She twitched, and I smiled. Releasing her, I took a step back.

“Lie down on the bed, Brianna.”

It took her a few seconds, but she complied.

“Slide closer to the edge,” I instructed, showing her where I wanted her.
 

When she was finally in place, she lay on the edge of the bed with her legs spread, her knees bent, and her hands and feet flat. She was completely open to me.
 

I knelt between her legs and placed my hands on her inner thighs. She was watching me.