TRICKED TRUTHS by
Beth Kery
WHISKEY CREEK PRESS www.whiskeycreekpress.com
Published by WHISKEY CREEK PRESS Whiskey Creek Press PO Box 51052 Casper, WY 82605-1052 www.whiskeycreekpress.com
Copyright © 2007 by Beth Kery Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 (five) years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN 978-1-60313-068-4
Credits Cover Artist: Julia Stilchen Editor: Kate Scott Printed in the United States of America
Dedication This is for EJR
Chapter 1 Trick figured the front seat of her car was as good a place as any to fuck. God knew they’d done their fair share of backseat humping when he’d spent that better-left-forgotten summer at West End so long ago. He wondered if he didn’t bother to take Layla into the house now because he was too old, too drunk or too uninspired. When he heard her loud, porn-star moaning he guessed it was the latter. That and the fact that the mere thought of waking up with her in his bed started a bitch of a headache to flare behind his eyes. “You always did know how to flip me to the go position with just a wink and a smile,” Layla purred as she raised her head from his lap. “You’ve been perpetually in the go position since you turned thirteen.” “Just as cocky as I remember.” She fisted his saliva-slick penis suggestively. He was glad she didn’t make a fuss when he encouraged her to turn in his lap. He didn’t particularly want to look her in the face in the next few minutes. Knowing what a jerk that made him hardly helped in sustaining his arousal. She leaned on the steering wheel, craning her chin over her shoulder when she heard the sound of paper ripping. “You never needed one of those before!” 1
Tricked Truths “What do you think I am, stupid? Do you want to do this or not?” he asked flatly. She licked away her snarl with a slide of her quick tongue. Layla had learned quite a few new maneuvers with that mouth in the past thirteen years, he acknowledged. If he didn’t know for a fact that she practiced them on every dick in Trenton County that passed muster, he’d think her husband was one lucky son-of-abitch. She conceded defeat with a pout and watched him roll the condom over his turgid cock. “Maybe you’re right. You’re the one who was traveling for so many years with that oil company in all those dirty, uncivilized countries in the Middle East and Asia. I guess a girl never can be too safe.” Trick’s lips tilted with humor as he lifted her skirt to her waist. Earlier that evening Layla had strutted into the raunchiest tavern in the county with one clear intent in her eyes. He wasn’t surprised when she chose to snuggle up to him, but had broken out in unbridled laughter when she reported that she’d just come from a meeting of the Everly School Board. He’d only laughed harder when she took him to her car in the Trading Post parking lot and found she wasn’t wearing anything but a garter and stockings beneath her tight lavender suit. Vice president of the school board, indeed. “Maybe nobody’s told you yet, honey, but you can get the same diseases from picking up one-night stands at the Trading Post as you can in those supposedly dirty, uncivilized countries.” “Trick, you know exactly what I meant,” she whined. “And is that what you think? That I was at the Trading Post tonight just to pick up a man for the night?” That was exactly what he thought but he wasn’t stupid enough to say so when the bourbon ran thin in his blood and he was starting to recall all too vividly why he’d carefully avoided Layla Edwards. 2
Tricked Truths “What I think is that all your hard work is going to go waste if you don’t get your ass down on this.” “Well, we can’t have that, can we?” she asked huskily. He grasped her naked hip and slid her down onto his waiting cock. Although he was sufficiently aroused, a lassitude overcame him as she begun to buck over his length with almost mechanical strength and precision. He watched her with a detached fascination. “That’s right, Layla. Hold on to that steering wheel and take me for a nice ride,” he muttered thickly. He doubted she even heard him through all her shrieks and almost nonstop dirty talk. He did his best to shut out her dramatics so that he could finish what he already regretted starting in the first place. **** Grace Jamison’s hands were damp as she slid on a pair of sandals and silently opened the screen door of Widow’s Cottage. Evan had never really been clear if it was his grandmother, greatgrandmother, or both who had been the original widow for which the small house on West End property had been named. One thing was certain—the name had become apt again nearly four hours ago, when Grace and her son Randy had arrived. She’d been prickly with anticipation the entire time, both eager for and dreading the upcoming confrontation with the owner of West End. Grace had every right to be there. The Widow’s Cottage was indisputably hers. That didn’t stop her from slinking around the house like a fugitive when they’d first arrived, not even turning on a light until Randy complained that he couldn’t see the outlet to plug in his computer in his new room. “Why are you so jumpy, Mom?” Randy had asked with exasperation after he flipped on the light in his bedroom and she practically leapt out of her own skin. 3
Tricked Truths “Just nerves, I guess,” Grace replied with a strained smile. “The move today, starting a new job, new house—” Randy grimaced as he ran his hand over the old, sturdy wooden desk where he’d set his computer. “Not exactly a new house,” he interrupted, his lip curling up on one side as he examined his dust-coated fingers. “I’m surprised this place even has electricity.” Grace studied her son’s profile. For the past several months, it was as though she was watching him vacillate between childhood and puberty. Right at the moment he could have posed for a photo illustration of the sullen teenager years. The past year had been hard on him. Her brother Kenny had died only three months ago. Gran had preceded him by only a year. Randy hardly spoke of either event, although the deaths of two out of three of the most important people in his life had changed him indelibly. And now she’d brought him to Everly. He’d left behind friends, his summer baseball team, his little league football team, and a familiar school where he was well-liked and excelled in his classes. God, please let her have made the correct decision. Her conscience told her it was the right thing to do, that she really had no other choice. But she would forever regret if Everly was as much of a nightmare for Randy as it had once been for her. Randy had been asleep now for a little over an hour, enough time for Grace to confirm her suspicions that West End, the stables, and the backyard and terrace appeared to be empty. They hadn’t pulled into the long drive that led to the sprawling, handsome farmhouse until after eight that evening. From what she recalled about living at West End, things were bustling before sunrise, but slowed to a desiccated slug’s pace by the time the relentless summer sun and the humidity finally became unbearable by five o’clock in the afternoon. Not a farmhand had been in sight as they unpacked the near-to-bursting van. 4
Tricked Truths Certainly the unmistakable owner of the enormous farm had been nowhere in evidence. Until now, anyway. Grace noticed the car’s headlights when she went to the kitchen for a drink of water. The motion-sensitive outdoor lights switched on. She ran back into the living room and flipped off the television, the only source of light coming from inside the house at the moment. It was a stupid thing to do and she knew it. But that didn’t make her turn on the light in the kitchen as she peered through the window at the arriving car. No reason for lights, anyway. Trick had made it clear that he couldn’t stand the sight of her. She smiled grimly when she heard Gran’s voice echoing in her head. Got a swarm of jitterbugs in yer belly, haven’t ya, Gracie? The car remained stationary in a central courtyard, a circular turnabout that connected West End to a tree-lined lane that led first to the stables then to a network of warehouses, barns and silos to the east. The headlights shut off. Seconds passed, a minute, then several, but the tall, unmistakable form of the man she expected to see never alighted from the car. She waited in breathless tension for what seemed like an excruciatingly long period of time—but in reality was likely only ten minutes—before she slipped on her sandals and walked out the screen door. **** After Layla had thrashed out her second orgasm with the help of his finger on her clit, Trick finally took matters into his own hands. Literally. He gripped her ass and hips and flexed his arms demandingly, pounding into her with the strength of an inverted pile driver. She gave a surprised, helpless yelp each time their flesh smacked together, all dramatics long forgotten. When he convulsed inside her the sensation tipped her over another orgasmic 5
Tricked Truths cliff. Her mouth hung open slackly as she whimpered in sexual release yet again. The only sound Trick made as he came was a low grunt when all the sexual tension finally left his muscles. “God, that was good, baby, but it’s so hot in here,” Layla muttered between jagged pants as she leaned her upper body weight over the steering wheel a few moments later. Without a word, Trick reached around her, flipped the ignition and lowered the automatic window of her car to let in a breeze. The dashboard and headlights blazed on. Trick had the surreal experience of suddenly staring into a pale, dazed face and a pair of huge eyes he remembered all too well, although he would’ve paid a premium not to. For a stunned eternal second, their gazes held, blue piercing into dove gray. He gave a harsh bark of disbelieving laughter. “Welcome to the fuck-fest, Mom. Guess there’s no need to tell you the rules, is there?” **** Grace fought off the paralysis of shock and managed to get a message to her leaden feet to move. She was inside the Widow’s Cottage locking the front door behind her before she recognized the face of the stunned brunette who was currently skewered to Trick Burnett’s lap. Her heart thundered in her chest so erratically that it alarmed her. She made her way to the threadbare couch in the living room and collapsed. She heard the car peel out of the drive, then the sound of Trick’s forceful tread scattering gravel as it neared. The screen door swung open. He knocked three times, the succinct raps somehow ominous in their implication of his barely restrained fury. “What the hell are you doing here?” Trick demanded when she opened the door. 6
Tricked Truths Grace despised herself for being so nervous she couldn’t find her voice. He was an immense shadow against the dimly moonlit night sky. His size and the sheer vibrancy of his body reminded Grace of why he was called ‘Trick.’ Her former husband Evan used to sarcastically give his opinion on the origins of the nickname on a regular basis, but Grace knew the real reason behind the name. Evan Burnett’s son had been a six foot four and a half inch, two hundred and fifteen pound force to be reckoned with during his high school and college football career. It was his incredible quickness that had made him such an outstanding defensive tackle on the gridiron. His lightness in comparison to other players in that position, his speed, and his agile moves had taken many a quarterback by unpleasant surprise. Of course there were those who said that the only son of Evan and Myra Burnett had earned his nickname long before that as a regular instigator of pranks. The perpetual gleam of mischief in his blue eyes made him the obvious choice for the guilty party even on those rare occasions when he was actually innocent. “Would you mind keeping your voice down? Randy is sleeping.” She was surprised how calm she sounded. It felt as if her heart would burst out of her ribcage at any moment. She’d semiprepared herself for this meeting but what she’d just seen out in that car had effectively crushed any trace of equanimity she’d possessed. “He’s here, too?” Trick barked. “Yes. And as I said, he’s sleeping. If you could—” Before she could finish she felt his grip on her elbow and she was hauled out onto the small front porch. Trick reached behind her and shut the front door. Grace had to force herself not to back away in panic when he leaned over her. “You’ve got exactly ten seconds to tell me what the hell you’re doing on my property before I call the police,” he said in low, threatening tone. 7
Tricked Truths “Did you forget that Evan left the Widow’s Cottage to me?” “I didn’t forget. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve offered to buy it from you. Is that what this is all about? Are you here to blackmail me into offering you ten times the amount for the cottage? Wasn’t the quote for four times more than its worth enough for you?” he spat viciously. Grace inhaled slowly in an attempt to calm herself, but it was impossible to not be affected by Trick. His fury seemed to roll off his big body in palpable waves of heat. “You never offered it,” she said. Trick blinked, clearly put off by her response. He strained his eyes in the shadows to make her out more clearly. She stood completely still, refusing to cringe although she was tempted. At one time the difference in their size and strength had thrilled her, making her hyperaware of her femininity compared to his raw masculine power. The top of her head only struck him just above his nipple line but she held her ground. Her neck craned back to meet his stare. Although they were in near pitch blackness, their faces were only inches apart. “What do you mean I never offered it?” Trick scoffed. “I mean that you never did personally.” “I had Grayson send letters, same difference. What’s your point? Did you want to see me in person?” He leaned down further. “Always regret there was one dick left in Everly you couldn’t sucker into my father’s bed?” The anger that rose in her in the tense seconds that followed was so potent she clearly pictured raking that smug face with her fingernails and drawing blood. Hurt warred with fury to be judged so unfairly…to be judged so unfairly by him. But inevitably another picture of him rose in her memory: droplets of water clinging to his cheeks and dark eyelashes, the economical, rapid movements of his hands, the look of sharp concern in his blue eyes. 8
Tricked Truths The image quenched the flame of her fury until there was nothing left but the telltale signs of adrenaline surging through her blood like lingering smoke. She took a deep, uneven breath. “I don’t want to fight with you, Trick, and I’m not here to force you into a larger offer on the Widow’s Cottage. I don’t plan on selling it. Randy and I are going to live in it.” “Like hell you will.” “Like hell we will,” she countered in a tone that was just as quietly confident as his had been sarcastic. He gave a bark of disbelieving laughter. “You plan on bringing up an innocent kid in a town where you’re known as a murderess and a whore?” “I never killed anyone and you know it, Trick.” “Same as,” he muttered darkly. She jumped in alarm when she felt his hand on the side of her neck. “What are you up to?” he grated out through clenched teeth. “Just get it out in the open. What do you want from me?” “I’m not ready to tell you yet.” For the second time that night her answer seemed to catch him off-guard. His nostrils flared and fury gleamed in his eyes. “Not up to talking right now, is that it?” he asked in a misleadingly calm, low voice. “Knowing your ways, you’re probably a lot more ready for this.” Her gasp of shock was stifled when his mouth covered hers. She instinctively twisted her jaw to escape him but her chin encountered his large, strong hands in both directions. He crushed her lips painfully against her teeth. When she tried to cry out in protest he slid his tongue into her mouth. Tears squeezed past her clenched eyelids as he began to thrust and sweep his tongue everywhere—against her teeth, far into her depths, along her lips—in a manner meant to humiliate as much as to thoroughly dominate. 9
Tricked Truths Grace pushed against his shoulders and chest wildly but she might as well have been fighting a mountain. In a moment of blind desperation she formed a fist and pounded it against his ribs and hard stomach. He responded by snaking one hand up along her scalp and pinning her in place for his pillaging tongue, gripping her hair between his fingers, and encircling her wrist with his freed hand. Trick barely registered her surprised grunt when he backed her against the wall of the cottage and forced her captive hand up to rest next to her ear. With her head more upright and their disparate heights it became a difficult angle for him to maintain the pressure of his marauding kiss. He suddenly wanted…no, needed to drown himself in her taste. With a sound of impatience he grabbed her beneath her armpits and lifted her slight weight onto his bent knee and thigh. A low growl of savage satisfaction vibrated his throat as he plunged his tongue again unrestrainedly into her honeyed depths. He promptly forgot his original intent to humiliate her as animal lust pounded through his veins. Grace wasn’t sure at what point she stopped fighting him. She just knew by the time he flexed the hands beneath her arms into the sides of her breasts she was already growing torpid as heat swept from beneath his mouth and fingers down her belly and pooled like a liquid ache at her sex. He pressed his hips into her at a slightly upward angle. She resisted the pressure, grinding her pelvis into his. He felt hot, hard, elementally male…like an irresistible force of nature. Trick’s lips began to mold and sip when formerly they had crushed and bruised. His tongue sought and caressed when before it had dominated and plundered. His palms shaped themselves languorously around firm, thrusting, succulent breasts. 10
Tricked Truths He paused when he registered her soft cry. Instead of hosing down his violent lust with the equivalent of ice water like such a plaintive cry logically should have, it conversely inflamed him further. The realization acted like an alarm jolting into his awareness. A groan roughened by anger and lust vibrated deep in his chest as he tore his mouth from hers. For a few suspended seconds their escalated breaths mingled. “It doesn’t take much to turn you into a bitch in heat, does it?” She inhaled unevenly, instinctively pushing down the sharp pain that pierced her with his words. What could she say? He wasn’t half wrong. How could she have allowed herself to respond so wholeheartedly to him when his only intent had been to punish and subjugate her to his will? Trick pushed himself away from her as if he’d just woken from a jaunt of sleepwalking and found himself French-kissing a cobra. “I’m calling Grayson first thing in the morning. Don’t bother unpacking your bags. You’re going to be out of here by noon tomorrow. There isn’t a court in the country that would force me to live on the same property with my father’s murderer.” Grace struggled to regain her former composure despite the anxiety his threat caused. “That would be a great speech if it was true. But it’s not. Your father’s murderer is locked up in Bloomington Correctional Facility.” “Still pining for him? Does old Len get conjugal visits up there in the pen? From the way you were sucking on my tongue just now, I’d guess they’re nowhere near sufficient for cooling your blood. But then again, everyone in Trenton County knows just one man never could keep you satisfied.” Grace hunched over, instinctively guarding her spiritual wounds as she stepped away from the wall. Weariness assailed her. “Not that I think you were asking for any other reason than to insult me, but I have seen Leonard several times over the years. He 11
Tricked Truths deeply regrets what he did to your father, not that it can ever be excused.” Trick’s lip curled in renewed fury. “Yeah? Amazing, isn’t it? How much regret can be inspired in a little weasel like Len Mallet when he’s surrounded day in and day out by four concrete walls and nothing but three hundred pound sociopaths who probably think he’s as pretty and as fun to play with as you do?” A tense silence followed his blistering comment. Eventually Grace spoke. “I’ve talked with my lawyer, Trick. I have every right to be here. I own the Widow’s Cottage.” “You don’t own the rest of the property though,” he said coldly. “How are you going to get to the cottage? Where are you going to park? Where are you going to put your garbage? Where’s the kid going to play?” “How can you be so cruel? Randy’s your own brother. He’s a child. He doesn’t deserve even a hint of your contempt!” “Maybe you should’ve thought of that before you dragged him into this self-serving scheme of yours. You’re fucking with the wrong man. So why don’t you just hightail it back to whatever trailer park you and your kin call home these days,” Trick said with icy finality before he turned and left her standing alone on the Widow’s Cottage front porch.
12
Tricked Truths
Chapter 2 Trick cursed foully and tossed the second cup of cooled coffee he’d tried to drink that morning down the kitchen drain. He was so preoccupied with waiting for Doug Grayson to return his call and staring fixedly out the window at the Widow’s Cottage that he kept forgetting to drink the much-needed beverage. He had a bitch of a bourbon-inspired headache throbbing in his right temple. “Damn it, Ava!” he bellowed when his stout housekeeper poured a healthy dose of scalding hot coffee onto his hand and wrist. Ava snorted without a trace of repentance as Trick flipped on the tap and ran his reddened hand beneath the cold water. “Are you getting a flaming dose of Alzheimer’s or what?” he accused sourly. “I was trying to pour you some fresh coffee, you ungrateful snot, but you’re so damned restless this morning you’re not finishing a breath in one spot. And shame on you for making fun of folks with that ol’ timer’s disease. Josh Shively just had to put his daddy in the nursing home for that, and—” “Alzheimer’s my ass. Alan Shively earned that dementia the old-fashioned way—by drinking himself into it.” “Watch your mouth, boy,” Ava scolded. “Your mama was a real lady and she’d hate knowing her pride and joy talked so filthy.” “You cuss like a longshoreman yourself, Ava. I learned half my dirty vocabulary from you when I was sixteen years old,” Trick 13
Tricked Truths muttered with a mixture of humor and exasperation as he toweled off his sore hand. The plainspoken Ava may be a little rough around the edges but it had been her, certainly not his father, who had been there for Trick during the emotionally slaying thirteen months before his mother finally succumbed to death. Evan had originally hired Ava as a housekeeper and nursing assistant to care for Myra Burnett during the terminal stage of her cancer. When Trick had returned to Everly two years ago, he’d run into Ava at the grocery store. He’d discovered that she was living in an empty nest and bored off her gourd, and Ava had discovered just what she needed—a soul who truly needed her. She’d reported for work at West End the very next day. “Well I ain’t no lady like your mama was,” Ava snipped. “Well I ain’t either,” Trick muttered under his breath as he stared out the window again. All was quiet at the Widow’s Cottage. Maybe his former stepmother had wised up to the fact that once she left the property he was going to do everything in his power to keep her off. So what are you going to do? Sit here all day like a peeping Tom anticipating his target? He snorted in disgust and threw down the towel. “I’m going to the plant. If Grayson calls, tell him to call me there or on my cell. And tell him to have all the documents from Evan’s will, land titles and stuff like that ready. Tell him I want that scheming bitch gone by tonight or both Midwestern Biofuel and West End will be looking for a new lawyer.” He grabbed his keys off the table. He’d drive one of the farm trucks to the plant and ask Hal or Indigo to take him to the Trading Post later this afternoon in order to retrieve the car he’d left in the parking lot last night. “I’ll tell that nice Mr. Grayson no such thing,” Ava said without turning around from the kitchen sink. “And she doesn’t look 14
Tricked Truths much like a scheming bitch. More like Alice in Wonderland, I’d say.” Trick was across the kitchen and behind Ava with remarkable speed for such a big man. He watched the Burnett family’s most recent widow open the hatchback on the van in his driveway. He hadn’t seen her in the light of day for more than a decade. His mouth twisted in fury as he silently acknowledged the truth of what Ava had said. She wore a light blue t-shirt tucked into a white skirt and white low-heeled sandals. She’d worn her hair in a short, fashionable cut when she was married to his father. Now it was long. Trick couldn’t remove his eyes from the glossy waves for a few seconds as his brain conjured up images of what it might feel like fisted in his hand…or sliding across his belly as her head moved between his thighs. Her body was just as slender and graceful as it had been when she had been his father’s teenage bride. From the back, she looked as slim and narrow as a boy. But even as the memory of her feminine softness against his palm invaded his awareness, she turned to face them, rolling a suitcase behind her. The rest of the package may look innocent but the firm, thrusting breasts that stood out in such stark contrast from her narrow ribcage proclaimed his stepmother’s true carnal nature loud and clear. So did the manner that she’d sucked so eagerly on his tongue for those few electric seconds last night like she’d been wishing it was his dick. Trick grimaced. Okay, so what if it had been him doing the wishing in regard to that during those maddened moments while he kissed her. And why did just the memory of her beautiful breasts slick with water and the small, virginal pink nipples pulled tight with arousal still have the power to twitch his cock after more than a dozen years? Since the first time he’d ever laid eyes on his father’s 15
Tricked Truths bride she’d turned his dick into something almost as deceitful as she was. “Don’t be taken in by the innocent face, Ava. My father was and look what happened to him,” Trick said in a low voice. Ava glanced over her shoulder and up into his face. “Funny. Your dad was one of the shrewdest men I’ve ever met. Look at how he managed to unseat old Dick Mason and take his place as state representative when Dick was Trenton County’s favorite for so many years. I always wondered if Evan didn’t have some dirt on Dick and that was why the old fart vacated the spot so conveniently just when your dad decided he wanted it. Evan could read people like a neon sign.” “A skill he used to manipulate them in any way that struck him as handy at the moment,” Trick muttered as he left the kitchen. Ava’s gaze returned to the retreating figure of Evan Burnett’s widow. “Exactly,” she murmured. She picked up Trick’s full cup of coffee, which was currently at the perfect temperature, and took a leisurely sip. **** “Jamison,” Grace stoically corrected the slack-jawed secretary at Pleasant Meadows Elementary School. “I go by my maiden name now.” “Well, I can understand why,” Adelaide Rorrick exclaimed before she could catch herself. She gave an apologetic grimace. “What I mean is that…well…it’s just that…” “I understand. I got a lot of unpleasant press in Trenton County a decade ago. But I’m sure you will recall that there was more to my identity than all of that scandal, Mrs. Rorrick. You were the secretary here when I attended Pleasant Meadows as a child. Do you recall?” The elderly lady’s pale blue eyes went as wide as dinner plates. “Of course I remember. You had the top grades in your class in all but maybe one year and a sweeter little girl there never 16
Tricked Truths was. You were always so kind to that mentally retarded brother of yours. The patience of a saint, I always said. What was his name?” “Kenny,” Grace supplied with a strained smile. “He had Down’s Syndrome. And if anyone had the character of an angel, it was him. He was a joy to be with.” She glanced away and swallowed to clear the grief that suddenly clogged her throat. “We lost him a few months back.” Despite the fact that Adelaide Rorrick was swept away by the prospect of having a front row seat to what was destined to become the most succulent piece of Everly gossip in years, tears welled up in her eyes. “I’m sorry to hear about your loss, Mrs. Bur—I mean, Ms. Jamison. And I also apologize for my reaction earlier.” She bit on the end of her ballpoint pen nervously. “I guess it was Mr. Abercrombie who hired you, then?” “Yes. He was kind enough to meet me in Indianapolis for the interview. He was there for a principal’s conference and it shortened my drive considerably.” Adelaide just shook her head in amazement as she stared at Grace. A less likely candidate for a sly adulteress she couldn’t imagine. She remembered those eyes all too well. Adelaide used to think Grace Jamison’s gaze was way too somber, too grown-up for such a small child. The color of her eyes reminded Adelaide of the sky after a heavy rain when the sun began to reassert its dominance and softened the gray clouds. Adelaide remembered the year that Grace and that mentally defective brother of hers had shown up for the first day of school dressed like white trash, wearing shoes with holes in the leather and ill-fitting, obviously secondhand clothing. They were clean, though. Adelaide would have to give that hillbilly grandmother of theirs credit for that. No one would ever guess today from the cultured sound of Grace Jamison’s voice or the delicate, fine lines of her face and carriage that she was brought up in a shack with no running water. 17
Tricked Truths “Mr. Abercrombie is new to this school district. He must not have known that you…grew up around here,” Adelaide finished awkwardly. “I told him that I went to Pleasant Meadows during the interview in the spring.” “Yes, but he couldn’t have known about the…” Adelaide stopped herself and nervously shuffled some papers on her desk. “About my husband’s murder? I don’t know if he knew about it or not, Mrs. Rorrick. It’s not something that’s relevant to my abilities or qualifications to teach the third grade.” “Well, of course not. It’s just that—” “I’m glad you agree. There are many people in a small town like Everly who would judge me without really knowing anything about me. Are you one of those people, Mrs. Rorrick?” Adelaide sat back, stunned into silence by that calm tone and disconcertingly direct gaze. “Of course I’m not. That’s just wrong of people to do that. Doesn’t the Bible say, ‘judge not lest ye be judged’?” Grace smiled at the little birdlike woman. She’d learned long ago that those who could be petty and cruel also had the potential to be kind and noble if they were ever given a clear choice to do so. Grace hadn’t forgotten the Pleasant Meadow’s secretary’s warm smiles that occasionally dissipated her sour-faced expression. How was it that Mrs. Rorrick looked not a day older than when Grace and Kenny used to bring her their completed physical forms at the beginning of each school year? Grace would swear that the ugly eagle paperweight sitting on the elderly woman’s desk had been there twenty years ago. Even the odor in the school office was the same, some mixture of mildew, floor wax and Mrs. Rorrick’s perfumed talcum powder. Grace took a slow, steadying breath. She would have accepted Mrs. Rorrick’s condemnation of her just like she would accept the judgment of the majority of the residents in Everly. But knowing 18
Tricked Truths that she’d gained at least a temporary ally made her feel slightly weak in the knees with relief. Adelaide set down her pen briskly. “Well, what am I going on about anyway, when we need to get you set up as a new Pleasant Meadow’s employee? After you finish those forms, I’ll get the enrollment forms for your son for the fall. What did you say his name was?” “Randy,” Grace told her with a warm smile. **** “Her house smells like cats and spinach,” Randy complained as Grace drove down the country lane that led to West End. She laughed. “It used to smell that way when Mrs. Davenport babysat for Kenny and me twenty years ago. I wonder if she still watches Dark Promises every afternoon at three. Kenny could still quote dialogue from that soap opera right before he died, all thanks to Mrs. Davenport being a loyal fan.” “You said she wasn’t a babysitter,” Randy accused, his voice unintentionally shifting mid-sentence from a childlike alto to an adolescent tenor. “It was just a figure of speech, Randy,” Grace said, realizing her error too late. “We agreed that you needed a place to stay in town after school until I finish at work and Mrs. Davenport really needs the help with things around the yard and house. She’s even offered to pay you for the bigger things, like mowing the lawn. It’s an arrangement that will benefit everyone.” “I don’t like that place. And I don’t need a babysitter,” he repeated sullenly as he slouched his tall, lanky form down into his seat. He abruptly sat up when they neared the entrance to West End. “What’s with the cop car?” “I don’t know,” Grace said slowly. Her stomach lurched with anxiety when the police officer waved for her to stop at the beginning of West End’s entry drive. 19
Tricked Truths “What’s your name, Miss?” the officer asked through her lowered window. Grace blinked in recognition and dawning amazement. “Charlie? Charlie Helton? Is that you? You know my name. We were in the same year from the third grade until we graduated high school.” He sniffed. Grace noticed the way he threw out his chest selfimportantly. Oh, no. Charlie Helton had been one of those scrawny adolescents who kept waiting for puberty to hit them full throttle…and waiting…and waiting. Charlie’s self-esteem had never been good, but put a gun at his hip and an ounce of authority over his fellow citizens and his sense of self-worth ballooned into narcissistic proportions. “Mrs. Burnett? Mrs. Grace Burnett?” The way Charlie’s disdainful gaze ran over her reminded her all too perfectly of his cruel taunts about her threadbare clothing when they’d both been children. “Yes, but I go by my maiden name now, Grace Jamison.” “A complaint has been filed at the Everly Police Department stating that you’ve been trespassing on West End property,” Charlie said. Fury spread in Grace’s chest. She didn’t need to ask who had made the complaint. As if he’d appeared in response to her mental cursing of him, Trick pulled up behind her van in a pick-up truck. Despite the briskness of his movements as he got out and slammed the door, his voice sounded mellow when he approached. “Problems, Charlie?” Charlie hitched up his pants and nodded. “Nothing I can’t handle, Mr. Burnett. You shouldn’t have bothered to leave the plant. This situation is well under control.” Grace simmered with anger but she couldn’t keep her gaze from roving over Trick’s features. The darkness last night had prevented her from truly seeing him. Despite the fact that she was fu20
Tricked Truths rious at him at that moment, he was a sight for which she’d secretly longed for a good portion of her childhood and most of her adult life. The years had been good to him. He was the image of a man in his prime. He wore his dark brown hair longer than he had during that summer when he visited West End after he’d finished his master’s degree. His jeans covered hips and thighs looked every bit as hard as they were in his youth. Beneath the blue and white buttondown shirt he wore, his shoulders seemed even broader than she recalled. Certainly the angle of his mouth and lightly whiskered jaw was harder than she remembered. The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes were paler than the rest of his tanned face. Those deeply etched lines spoke of a man who had worked hard in his life…and seen much. They also suggested that he was quick to smile, not that Grace was likely to be seeing that side of Trick’s complex character soon. It took her a moment to fully register his mocking smile as she gaped at him. “You told the police department not to allow me into my own home?” she accused, trying to regain her balance following the unexpected blow to her spirit the sight of him conferred. She felt painfully aware of the fact that Randy leaned over the console to better see Trick through the van window. “Mom, is that—” Randy whispered before Trick answered her. “No. I told them that you were trespassing on my property. Which you were.” Grace fumed under his steady stare. “I was not trespassing. You know as well as I do that the Widow’s Cottage is mine. Stop this ridiculous game right—” “Do you have the deed with you?” Trick interrupted. Her cheeks flushed red with anger when she saw Charlie smirk at 21
Tricked Truths Trick’s question. Obviously Charlie enjoyed being on the side of the biggest bully in Trenton county. “Not here in the van. Of course not.” She opened the van door, forcing both men to back up as she got out of the vehicle. She’d be damned if she was going to sit there and take it while Trick Burnett and his runt toady bullied her. She squared off to face him. “The Widow’s Cottage is mine.” Trick’s eyes ran over her with insolent coldness. “I’ll need solid proof of that.” Bastard. Grace wondered if her furious thought wasn’t clearly broadcast to Trick when she saw him smirk. “Fine,” Grace replied through clenched teeth. “I have all the paperwork in a file in the cottage. Just as I’m sure that you have the exact same documents in West End.” She gasped when Charlie grabbed her upper arm roughly as she tried to walk up the driveway. “Let go of her,” was said simultaneously by Trick and Randy as Randy raced around the front of the van. Grace strained in Charlie’s grasp to see her son’s fierce expression. Randy’s concern she understood, but why had Trick sounded so furious at Charlie’s actions? “It’s okay, Randy. This is just a misunderstanding,” she assured her son calmly. Randy’s Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as he swallowed convulsively. “Let go of my mom,” he repeated, his voice cracking. “Now listen here, son,” Charlie said heatedly. “You better just watch yourself, speaking to an officer of the law like that about things you don’t understand.” “The boy’s right, Charlie. Let go of her,” Trick growled. Charlie frowned but released Grace’s arm.
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Tricked Truths Grace glared at Charlie as she rubbed the biceps where he’d held her in a bruising grip. “Who did you say you worked for, Charlie? The Everly Police Department or Midwestern Biofuel?” She felt a small measure of satisfaction when his beady brown eyes sparked with anger. Grace may not have been in Everly for over a decade but she’d kept up with the news and read the papers enough to know that Trick Burnett was worshipped like a hero in Trenton County for starting Midwestern Biofuel, the plant that turned local corn and soybeans into ethanol and biodiesel. The jump in oil prices and the Energy Bill the United States Congress had passed in an attempt to increase domestic alternative fuel sources only added to Trick’s hugely successful plant and the financial security of Trenton County. “You and your kid would be well-advised to watch your smart mouths—” “Are you going to let me get the document or not?” Grace asked Trick, ignoring Charlie’s impotent male posturing. She’d been well aware that the tall man’s gaze was on her the entire time. “No,” he answered insolently. “Fine. Get in the car, Randy. We’ll go into town and have Mr. Benchley fax the documents. I assume that will be sufficient to put an end to your afternoon playtime?” she asked Trick sarcastically as she passed under his long shadow. “You go get the documents. Let the kid stay.” Grace stopped dead in her tracks. She caught Randy’s expression of bemused vulnerability before she turned to face Trick. “No. This isn’t a game.” His right eyebrow cocked upwards as he regarded her. They might have been the only two people standing there. “Isn’t that what I told you last night?” he asked softly. His gaze shifted over to Randy after several tense moments. “Has your mother ever bothered to explain to you who I am?” 23
Tricked Truths “You’re my…my…big brother,” Randy answered awkwardly. Trick gave Grace a brief look that communicated his surprise that she’d had the guts to tell her son anything about her sordid past. “Do you want to stay here while your mom runs into town? It’s a hot one. You could take a swim if you want to, and afterwards I could introduce you to some of my horses. Do you like to ride?” “I’ve never done it before,” Randy said gruffly. His cheeks colored. “But I always wanted to. Can I, Mom?” Grace’s lips fell open in shock. She hadn’t been prepared for Randy’s eagerness or the almost hungry manner in which he eyed Trick. Why hadn’t she realized just how starved he was for a strong male presence in his life? He’d been well loved, but Grandma, Kenny and herself couldn’t serve as the powerful, masculine role model a boy Randy’s age needed. Trick must have noticed her unease. “He’ll be safe. You have my word on it,” he promised without rancor. “Please, Mom?” She licked at her lower lip nervously. “Okay,” she said in a low, tremulous voice. Trick started in surprise. He clearly hadn’t actually expected her to go along with his suggestion so easily. “I’ll be back in an hour or so. He’s not to be left alone at that lake under any circumstances.” “Mom…” Randy groaned in embarrassment. “It’s okay, Randy. She’s right. No one should swim alone,” Trick said. Grace saw Trick’s speculative glance at her before he turned. Let him believe he knew the reason behind her acquiescence. He probably thought it was because Grace planned to use her son to sink her hooks into him somehow. 24
Tricked Truths And he wouldn’t be far wrong. “Did you bring a suit with you?” she heard him ask Randy. “Yeah, I’ll go and get it. It’s still packed…” Grace was left staring at the backs of the man and the boy, feeling stunned and abandoned. Randy didn’t even give a backward glance as he laughed at some comment Trick made. “You better hurry up, Mrs. Burnett,” Charlie said snidely, interrupting her thoughts. “If you want to receive a fax, you’ll have to go to Kelly’s Kopies in town and she closes at five o’clock sharp.” Grace glared at him in disgust before she got in her van, her eyes repeatedly returning to the figures of the two retreating Burnett males until West End blocked them from her line of sight as she drove away. **** Nearly an hour later, Grace hesitated before she took the path that led to the lake. It was the last place in the world she wanted to face Trick Burnett. It had been almost thirteen years since he’d unexpectedly emerged out of the water beside her and proceeded to change her life forever— “Oh my God, Randy, don’t!” Grace shrieked in alarm. She’d just cleared the trees surrounding the sun-drenched lake only to see her son running toward the edge of a fifteen-foot raised platform. Trick grimaced and dove off the side of the dock to ensure that Randy wasn’t hurt after back-flopping into the lake. “You okay, kid?” he asked when Randy finally surfaced, wincing. “Shit that hurt!” Randy exclaimed before he realized what he’d just said and his expression stiffened. Trick’s abrupt laughter made him immediately relax, though. “I’ll bet it did. You hit the water completely horizontal. I’m surprised there’s any water left in the damn lake.” “Randy?” Grace queried anxiously from the end of the dock. 25
Tricked Truths “I’m okay, Mom,” Randy said as he swam toward her. “What the heck do you think you were doing?” she scolded. “A front flip off the platform. I was doing awesome at them until just now.” “That’s so dangerous,” she admonished, throwing an accusing glare at Trick. “The kid’s right. He was doing great until you showed up and spooked him. You were why he laid out of the dive and did a back flop instead of a front flip.” Grace’s knuckles went white as she gripped the papers she held in her hand tightly. “Randy isn’t allowed to do high dives like that.” Trick placed both hands on the dock and pushed himself out of the lake effortlessly, sloshing water everywhere, including onto Grace. “Why not? He’s an excellent swimmer and diver. I made sure of it before I let him go off the platform. The water is plenty deep and I was right here the whole time.” Grace’s paused in momentary shock and awe at the sudden exposure to a veritable mountain of hard, glistening male flesh. It took her a moment to realize that he’d splashed water all over her shoes and legs and that his eyes gleamed at her with clear provocation. “Randy, why don’t you go on up to the cottage?” Grace said. “I need to give Trick the documents he was so concerned about earlier.” Randy opened his mouth to protest but stopped abruptly at Trick’s warning glance. “Come on over to West End after supper, Randy, and I’ll show you the stables,” Trick said as the boy climbed up using the ladder on the dock. “Yeah, okay. Thanks, Trick. This lake is awesome.” “You’re welcome anytime,” he answered, but he didn’t flicker an eyelash as he returned Grace’s angry stare. After the boy had 26
Tricked Truths disappeared through the path in the trees, his gaze swept insolently down her body to the papers she held in her hand in a death grip. “Damn, you are in a tiff. I think you’re more pissed at the idea of the kid flopping on his back than you are about having to get the deed.” Grace’s fury built as he leaned back on the dock like a sinuous, lazy panther soaking up the sun. “I would think that you of all people would understand why I would be nervous about Randy swimming in this lake,” she said in a low, vibrating voice. He froze. “You’re either much braver or a lot more stupid than I had imagined mentioning that day to me.” Realization struck her like a punch in the chest. “I wasn’t referring to that time.” She glanced out at the shimmering lake, trying to regain her composure. Christ, why couldn’t she keep her mouth shut? “I was referring to the time with Kenny.” Trick slowly sat up. “Who the hell is Kenny? Another one of your lovers?” Grace flinched like he’d slapped her. “No. Your assumptions aren’t only wrong, they’re stupid and sophomoric. Now do you want this paperwork that I had my lawyer fax or not?” “Not particularly,” he said as he stood. “It figures. Just jerking me around again, huh?” Grace asked bitterly as she looked up into his shadowed face. He didn’t even bother to answer. “Who’s Kenny?” She gave an exasperated sigh. “Kenny is my brother. He died three months ago. Are you really going to try and convince me that you don’t remember saving his life out here at this lake?” “You were that little girl with that mentally retarded kid?” Grace bit back her acerbic answer when she registered his genuine surprise. “Yes. You really didn’t know?” “No.” Grace inhaled shakily, suddenly realizing that she’d been staring at the beads of moisture on his nose, cheeks and lips just as she 27
Tricked Truths had been as he’d hovered over her unconscious brother, resuscitating him. “You weren’t much more than a kid yourself at the time.” “I was twenty years old, home for break during the summer.” “You were Kenny’s hero after that day. He never missed a Notre Dame game if it was televised. He even memorized all of your stats.” Her whisper was shaky…evasive, but Trick heard it anyway. Trick strained to remember more details. “You two had snuck onto the property and were swimming out here just after dawn.” Grace nodded. “We were twelve and thirteen years old. I’d been walking beans on one of Evan’s crews and the foreman had allowed us to swim here to cool off one day. I told Kenny about it and he was hell-bent to swim here, too.” She sighed as her gaze wandered out to the lake. Trick got the impression that the memory still had the power to spook her. “I still thank God you came when you did,” she admitted softly. “If you hadn’t, he would have died for sure.” “You were a scrawny little thing,” Trick recalled. A hazy memory of the girl who knelt across from him while he labored over the boy flickered blurrily in his mind’s eye. The only details that stood out were how enormous her eyes had looked in her pale, frightened face and the knobbiness of her skinny knees. “When I told Evan about the incident later he said I’d been a fool for getting involved. He said that if your brother had died your family could have sued us for all we were worth.” Grace gasped. “What an awful thing for Evan to say.” Trick shrugged. “Evan loved to keep secrets but at least when he said something out loud like that you couldn’t accuse him of dishonesty. He meant everything he said. Why’d your brother die?” Grace blinked in surprise at his abrupt change of subject. “Complications from leukemia. He was born with Down’s Syndrome. It’s only one of the frequent medical conditions that accompany that disorder.” 28
Tricked Truths Her eyes flickered down over him, feeling like a light touch. His skin roughened with goose bumps and his cock lurched in his swim trunks. The anxious slide of the tip of her tongue along her lower lip told him that she’d noticed. She stepped back and cleared her throat. “Are you going to keep harassing me about the Widow’s Cottage? I spoke with my lawyer again. He assured me that ownership of the property includes easement rights for accessing it. You have no right to keep me from it.” “Yeah, that’s what Doug Grayson told me as well.” He gave her a hard look when he saw triumph flash in her gray eyes. “But there are plenty of legal avenues that I could take that would make things extremely difficult for you to live at West End.” “What do you hope to accomplish by doing that when you know in the end I’ll win in the courts?” “On paper, nothing. But it sure as hell would do me some good to see you sweat for once.” “Is that what you want, Trick? You want to see me sweat?” His eyes dropped pointedly to the front of her shirt. Her breasts heaved shallowly from the emotional stress of the moment. He’d been forcing himself not to stare, but why bother struggling with the inevitable? His gaze swept back up to her face and locked on her lips when he noticed that her breathing had suddenly stopped altogether. “Yeah. That’s what I want. For starters,” he told her in a low, suggestive voice. “You’re disgusting.” His eyebrow rose in a wry expression. “You got that straight. You think I don’t tell myself the same thing every second I’m in your presence and I can’t decide whether I want to strangle you or fuck you?”
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Tricked Truths When he saw how pale she went he knew he’d finally gotten to her. He forced himself to ignore the bitterness that accompanied his petty little victory. He laughed. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. Thoughts about strangling you far outweigh. They’re pretty effectively icing down my lunacy in the other department.” “I’m so relieved to hear it,” she murmured. “Are you?” Her head jerked up at his sarcasm. “Yes.” His smirk told her what he thought of that. Grace may look at him sometimes like she was considering licking him up like a chocolate ice cream cone on a hot August day, but he’d given up the illusion long ago that her steamy stares had anything to do with him personally. “I’ll stop harassing you.” “If?” Grace asked cautiously, sensing the unspoken part of his statement. “If you do two things. One, let me spend time with my brother.” She stiffened. “Why do you want to do that?” “He’s my brother. Why shouldn’t I want to get to know him?” “He’s a human being, not some kind of pet for you to play with and then drop when the novelty wears thin.” “You don’t know a damned thing about me. I wouldn’t do that,” he grated out between clenched teeth. “Well you don’t know a damned thing about me either, so we’re even!” His eyes widened at her shout. Despite the fact that he’d been trying to pierce her insufferable calm, he’d been caught off-guard by the fierceness of her anger. He watched as she struggled to regain her composure. Within seconds the armor of smooth tranquility was back, and Trick had to question his sanity in thinking he’d 30
Tricked Truths ever ruffled her at all. He experienced a nearly uncontrollable urge to shake her until she screamed at him again in fury…or in need. “What’s the other thing you want?” she asked. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned forward. “I hate liars and secrets. I grew up in a household where they were my constant companions. So what I want is the truth. I want you to look me in the eye and tell me why you married my father. I want you to tell me why you let it happen between us out at this lake when you were already engaged to him. And if I sense you’re lying on either count, then you’d better get used to the idea of wrangling with Charlie Helton and spending all your time in court, sweetheart.” “Those are two things.” Trick rolled his eyes in disgust. “Give me a break, will you?” “Why? You’re certainly not giving me one.” She exhaled tiredly when she noticed his unforgiving stare. “I married your father because he asked me to, Trick.” “That’s not an answer. You were just a kid at the time. What were you…nineteen, twenty?” She stared out at the lake. “I was seventeen.” “What?” he roared in scandalized disbelief. He’d called his father a cradle-robbing pig in his mind far too many times to count at this point but he’d never actually understood how accurate his aspersions were. “That’s not even legal.” Grace met his disdainful gaze steadily. “It is if the parent gives permission. My grandmother, who was my legal guardian, did.” Trick’s lip curled in disgust. “No seventeen-year-old girl has dreams of marrying a man old enough to almost be her grandfather. Why did he do it? Why did you?” “It never struck you that we could have been in love?” He laughed mirthlessly. “No. Never even once. Oh, I’d learned the hard way—no pun intended—why a guy could get damned stupid over you. But my old man only cared about two 31
Tricked Truths things—money and power. He never would have let his dick make his decisions for him.” “He cared about you, too, Trick,” she said quietly. He paused, mouth falling open. His harsh, mirthless laughter made Grace jump in alarm. “God, you really are good, the way you morph into the concerned stepmother role without the flicker of an eyelash.” When she didn’t fall for his bait, but just regarded him silently, all traces of laughter faded from his face. “Right. Let’s cut the bullshit. Are you going to answer, or not?” “Why are you even asking? To bolster your opinion of me? If my answer doesn’t accomplish that, you won’t believe me anyway.” She took a deep breath. “Okay, here’s the answer, Trick. I married your father for money. I needed money and I didn’t have it. He offered to give it to me. As to why he married me, that’s his secret, not mine.” She met his stare defiantly for a full ten seconds. “So what do you say? You’re the expert on me. Am I telling the truth or not?” Trick cursed under his breath. Her eyes widened in obvious alarm when he placed his hand along the side of her throat but she didn’t flinch. “I’m going to crack you. It’s just a matter of time.” His fingers moved seemingly of their own volition to stroke her soft skin. Touching the vulnerable column of her throat brought to mind what he’d said earlier. But as he looked down into Grace’s troubled gray eyes and his cock hardened into a steel pipe, Trick admitted to himself that the last thing he wanted to do was strangle Grace at that moment. His hand dropped as though her flesh had burned him. “Just steer clear of me.” When she didn’t respond he grabbed his towel and headed for the path. He had to hand it to her. Trick strode toward the woods. She’d forced him to retreat. The defeat didn’t sit well with him. Still…he was a man who knew his limits. 32
Tricked Truths And he would have been sorely pushing his if he stayed another second on that dock with Grace Jamison.
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Tricked Truths
Chapter 3 The first week of school came and went with almost alarming speed. Grace figured she was too distracted with a thousand different details to record anything as insignificant as the passage of time. There were her new students to fill up her awareness—a few managed to overflow it—the unusually hot weather coupled with the fact that the Widow’s Cottage had no air conditioning, the subsequent sleepless nights, and Randy’s moodiness and sulks in regard to staying at Mrs. Davenport’s after school. Trick had kept his word about not harassing her anymore. She could count on one hand the number of times she’d caught the barest glimpse of him during the week. Randy, on the other hand, was spending more and more time with Trick after supper in the evening, sometimes taking a swim with him, occasionally riding around the West End property in one of the farm trucks to make some inspection. More frequently their mode of transportation was on horseback. Randy talked nonstop about his brother’s riding skills, the horse named Lucky Stripe Trick was using to teach him to ride, or some combination thereof. The degree of hero worship he expressed for Trick was anxiety provoking for her. Still, she’d lived with someone for most of her life who had done the same. Kenny had practically worshipped Trick. So it wasn’t entirely a shock to her system. Other events hadn’t been so promising. Grace surveyed her week on the drive over to pick up Randy from Mrs. Davenport’s 34
Tricked Truths on Friday afternoon. There had been that visit from Trick’s lawyer, Doug Grayson. And perhaps even higher on the list of alarming occurrences was the visit she’d had yesterday afternoon in her classroom from the president of the Everly School Board, Robert Vermillion, and the vice president, Layla Edwards. When Grace had looked up from grading the math homework on her desk and seen Layla, she’d sent up a fervent prayer. Please, God, don’t let her have seen me that night through the car window. The occasion was touted as a ‘welcome to the family’ visit, but Grace wasn’t fooled for a second. The glittering, hard look In Layla’s slanting green eyes tipped her off before anyone uttered a syllable. “So, it’s actually true. I told Rob it was just too impossible to believe so I had to come see for myself,” Layla said as she gave a limp-wristed handshake in greeting. Grace blushed but her eyes remained steady, first on the nondescript face of Robert Vermillion, then on Layla. She’d only observed the woman closely two times in the past—that first night of her return home to Everly didn’t count, as far as Grace was concerned—and both of those occasions happened well over a decade ago. She could understand why men would find Layla attractive. Her dark brown, highlighted hair perfectly framed her square jaw. Layla’s face and body reminded her of a 1960’s Italian film goddess, succulent and unapologetically voluptuous. Grace wondered at the fact that a woman with her looks lived in a podunk town in Southern Indiana. “With a build-up like that, I’m sure to disappoint, Ms. Edwards. As you can see, I’m just an ordinary third grade teacher who already has too many papers to grade after her first week. But I’m thrilled to be here,” she said with a smile and a nod at the school board president. 35
Tricked Truths “Ordinary,” Layla scoffed. “I’d hardly call you ordinary, Mrs. Burnett.” When she saw Grace open her lips to speak, she added condescendingly, “Sorry. Mrs. Rorrick says you’re going by Ms. Jamison, now.” “That’s right,” Grace replied pleasantly. “Although what I was actually going to say was to please call me Grace. Would you two like to sit down?” Rob Vermillion politely refused and explained that he and Layla were visiting Pleasant Meadows on business and just wanted to stop by and welcome her. “Rob is very polite,” Layla interrupted. “I’m more direct, Ms. Jamison. That’s why we make a good team. The fact of the matter is that we have our concerns about you teaching here in Everly. Mr. Abercrombie is a fine principal but he’s not from Trenton County. He doesn’t know you the way that we do.” “You’re right, Ms. Edwards,” Grace said evenly. “He more than likely knows me much better. He’d done an admirably thorough review of my qualifications before the rather extensive interview, in addition to having already spoken in depth to all of my references. He seemed confident in his decision to hire me. Am I to assume that you’re not?” Despite her claims at being ‘direct’, Layla was obviously taken aback by Grace’s quiet question. “You are,” Layla answered. “If he’d have brought his choice for this position before the board, we would have vetoed it immediately.” Grace inhaled slowly. She broke Layla’s increasingly vitriolic gaze and looked at Rob Vermillion. “Is this how you feel as well, sir?” The middle-aged man began to resemble a harried husband caught between his wife and his accountant as he glanced anxiously between Layla and Grace. “I…well, certainly…that is…perhaps Ms. Edwards is being a bit too direct in her assertions but we do, in fact, have our concerns.” 36
Tricked Truths “If you could just tell me what your concerns are I’m certain I can alleviate them,” Grace said in an attempt to bring the conversation back onto a rational playing field. “I want nothing more than for the Everly School Board, the parents, and students to feel comfortable with me as one of its teachers.” “I would think our concerns would be obvious,” Layla sneered. “They are not obvious to me, Ms. Edwards,” Grace replied quietly. Layla rolled her green eyes. “Our concern is regarding our influence on your students. We want only individuals with unquestionably good character to serve as role models for Everly’s children.” “And have I done something in these past few days that would bring my character into question?” Grace asked as levelly as possible, given the fact that her knees were shaking and her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it had migrated to the space between her ears. “Of course not, Ms. Jamison—” Vermillion began. “But given your past history—” Layla interrupted smugly only to be cut off by Grace in turn. “I’ve never been accused of committing a crime, Ms. Edwards. I’m a devoted mother. I pay my taxes. I’ve never even received a speeding ticket.” “Of course, of course,” Vermillion placated, obviously recognizing that things were going beyond the bounds of what he’d attempted to accomplish by the visit. He touched Layla’s elbow and nodded to Grace with a strained smile. “Please accept our welcome to Everly School District, Ms. Jamison.” Layla’s pointed look of contempt before she allowed Rob to escort her from the classroom shouldn’t have concerned Grace so much. She’d grown familiar to disdain. But Layla’s particularly 37
Tricked Truths concentrated look of sheer spite had left a heavy lump of dread in her gut that Grace still carried with her. She’d discussed the meeting with the principal who had tried to be reassuring. Luckily, Mr. Abercrombie didn’t appear to have cultivated the narrow-minded, judgmental attitude that seemed to grow in a regular bumper crop in Trenton County. Grace dug around in her purse to find her ringing cell phone. “Mom, you’ll never guess—the most awesome thing has happened,” Randy began in a flurry of excitement without bothering to say hello. “Don’t tell me. Jessica finally found out that Justin is really her long-lost twin brother on Dark Promises.” “Ha. Very funny. I’m not ever going to have to watch that stupid soap opera again or clean up Mrs. Davenport’s litter boxes. Trick offered me a job.” “What sort of a job?” Grace asked. What exactly is Trick trying to pull now? “The kind where you get paid good money! Eight bucks an hour, Mom.” “Doing what, exactly?” “Working in the stables, cleaning the stalls, exercising the horses, stuff like that. Can you believe it? He wants to pay me to work with the horses!” Grace turned down the street where Mrs. Davenport lived. “I’m almost there, Randy. We can talk about the offer some more this evening.” “Okay, but I already told Trick I would do it.” Grace restrained a sigh, knowing for a fact from the rapturous tone of his voice that he wasn’t going to like what she said next. “You shouldn’t have done that, Randy. There are a lot of things to consider. You’re only twelve years old and that sounds like a really important job.” 38
Tricked Truths “You’re not going to let me do it?” Randy asked in highpitched disbelief. “I didn’t say that,” she replied calmly as she turned into Mrs. Davenport’s driveway. Randy was standing in the front yard, his cell phone pressed into his scowl. “I said that we’ll talk about it.” Randy slowly began to walk over to her car, still talking into his cell. His voice sounded notably less enthusiastic. “Trick said that you could talk to him about it if you had questions.” He didn’t return Grace’s amused smile when he opened up the passenger door and folded his long legs into the seat. He snapped close his cell sharply. “But considering the fact that you and Trick seem to hate each other, I guess that’s not going to help very much, is it?” Randy asked gloomily. **** “Hi. Is that angel food cake I smell baking?” Grace asked the chubby, energetic-looking woman who answered Trick’s front door at West End. “You’ve got a good nose on you. Are you a cook?” Ava asked with a welcoming grin. Grace just nodded as she wiped her sweaty forehead with the back of her hand. She’d just returned from a walk, hoping the light exercise would help her sleep tonight. The heat wave that currently held Trenton County hostage showed no signs of granting mercy anytime soon. “I’m making it to go with fresh strawberries for dessert tonight. Trick likes shortcake better, but he told me to cut back on the high fat desserts. Like he needs to worry about it. He’s all muscle and bone and the exercise that man gets in a day…” Ava rolled her eyes. “My idea of exercise is emptying the dishwasher. So you got tired of avoiding him, did you?” Grace couldn’t help but laugh at the change of topic and the cheeky question. “The avoidance was by mutual consent, trust me. Is he available?” 39
Tricked Truths “Sure. Come on in. Follow me. Kitchen’s at the end of the hallway.” Ava stopped and gave Grace a startled look. They shared a smile. “Sorry, my goof. I forgot you used to live in West End. I’m Ava Johnson, by the way, Trick’s housekeeper.” Grace introduced herself. “It’s okay. It seems like another life to me.” She glanced around curiously as they moved down the wide, gracious hallway. The central air conditioning felt deliciously cool. “Trick had the carpets stripped. I always wanted to do that. The wood is so beautiful everywhere else in this old house, I knew the floors would be just as gorgeous.” “Well, there’s something you and Trick agree on,” Ava said humorously. The older woman glanced around the empty kitchen in vague surprise. “He was just here a minute ago.” “He must have caught a hint of my visit and hightailed it for the woods,” Grace murmured wryly as she inspected the large kitchen. Funny, Ava had given it much more of a comfortable, warm feeling than Grace had ever been able to do. She’d never really felt at home in West End. But then again she’d been young and gauche when she’d come there, far too unconfident to have made her personal stamp on the handsome, traditional home. Ava struck her forehead dramatically. “No, it’s not that. Damn. I’d forget my own head if it weren’t attached. He went out to the storage shed to get those air conditioning units for you and Randy. Randy’s a fine young man, by the way. A real boy, you know? I saw him throwing the football out there in the yard with Trick. Doesn’t mind getting dirty, does he?” Grace smiled. “No, and my strong arms are the proof of it. I have to scrub almost every pair of shorts or jeans he wears.” “That’s how Trick was, too,” Ava said with a wave and a sniff. “Well, boys will be boys and if Randy is going to be anything like his brother—which he’s going to be a lot like, from the look of the two of them—then he’s going to be more of a boy than the other 40
Tricked Truths boys, and a lot more of a man then other men. Did you ever go to one of Trick’s ballgames at Notre Dame with Evan?” Grace shook her head. “No, that was before my time at West End, I’m afraid. Did you?” Ava threw back her shoulders proudly. “I never even had to ask for tickets, Trick just sent them in the mail like clockwork every year he started—which was all four years in a row if you didn’t already know. The pros wanted him after that. That’s what Evan wanted Trick to do after college. Maybe his father thought he’d make enough money in a few years to set him up for life.” “So that Trick could retire early and become a gentleman farmer at West End?” Ava must have caught the slight sarcasm in her otherwise bland seeming question. “You nailed it. Course Trick was having none of that. He went and earned his master’s degree in geophysics at Cornell while Evan ground his teeth impatiently for two years. Guess Evan was fit to munch through metal when Trick told him he was going to work for Sunco Oil. After that summer he spent here after completing his master’s degree, he never set foot in Everly again…except for his father’s funeral.” Grace noticed the curious glint in the housekeeper’s brown eyes and glanced away politely. Ava sighed. “I can start rattling on if you let me. But I started out by saying Randy may be a rough-and-tumble boy, but he’s also got real nice manners. I can tell he’s been raised right.” “Thanks. I had a lot of help from my grandmother.” “I remember your grandma. She used to donate her pies for the fund-raising auction at a nursing home I worked for in Everly. Myra Jamison’s pies always went for sky-high prices. Those homemade crusts were legendary. She was a good woman, your grandma. Barely could clothe and feed you and your brother and yet she still managed to give generously of her time and labor to help other people.” 41
Tricked Truths Grace colored hotly, unsettled by Ava’s bluntness. But she could also sense that the woman’s brisk forthrightness was just the outward manifestation of a deep inner strength and sincere kindness. “She passed on her pie making secrets to me. If you’d like, I’ll share them with you sometime,” Grace said after she’d recovered from her usual response of embarrassment over her family’s poverty. “No,” Ava gasped. “That would be the coup of the year. The ladies at my church are going to be so jealous. Trick will really have to watch his fat intake.” Grace laughed as she started back down the hallway. “You’re right. Unfortunately part of Gran’s secret for her crust wasn’t the use of low-fat margarine. Now where did you say I’d find Trick?” **** It turned out that she needn’t have searched any further than her own bedroom to find Trick. She found him and Randy installing an air conditioning unit there. Trick stood outside in the yard while Randy was in her room holding the unit steady. “What are you doing?” Trick’s eyes skimmed over her only fleetingly before he squeezed the handle of the drill he held in his hand. “Trying to cool you off a little,” he said finally after the loud whining noise had ceased. “The kid said he wasn’t sleeping at night.” “I appreciate your attempts at helping but I’ve already—” “Attempts? You hear that, Randy? Your mom says we’re doing a half-assed job!” Trick shouted through a small opening yet in the window. The curtains moved aside. Randy peered out, grinning hugely. The curtains fell back into place as they resumed their work. “I’ve already ordered to have air conditioning installed, Trick. They were supposed to be here tomorrow to do it.” 42
Tricked Truths His lips curled with amusement when he registered the goofy faces Randy was making through the window. “So? Call them and cancel.” He turned on the drill again, drowning out Grace’s protests. “…and I’m not at all sure they have a cancellation policy—” “These units are still good, and they were just taking up space in storage,” Trick said, silencing her words as effectively as the drill had. He tested the steadiness of the unit and gave Randy a thumbsup gesture. “Mind if I go inside and try it out?” he asked her as he set down his drill on a tool belt that lay on the grass. “Uh, no…but what about the…” Trick laughed as he went past Randy’s window and the newly installed air conditioner suddenly hummed to life. “Kid’s going to be asleep inside the hour. Probably will have his most alert day since he came to Everly tomorrow, too.” Grace couldn’t help but scowl as they passed by Randy’s room and Trick’s remark started to sound like a remarkably accurate prediction. Randy was sprawled on his bed flipping through a gaming magazine with his iPod in his ears while the A.C. poured forth streams of cooled air into the formerly stifling room. His perspiration-damp facial features were already relaxing into the content expression that comes just before sleep. “Thanks, Trick. This is awesome,” he said as he pulled one of the ear buds out. “Isn’t this awesome, Mom?” “Yeah, it is,” Grace admitted grudgingly as she pushed back his hair. She needed to take him for a haircut. His hair was almost as unruly as Trick’s in this humidity. “Yours will cool off the living room, too, if you leave the door open during the day. I’ll close it now so that you can sleep in an icebox tonight, though,” Trick said. “Did you guys talk about my job yet?” Randy asked, sitting up slightly in bed. 43
Tricked Truths “Not yet.” She looked at Trick. “That was why I was looking for you at West End just now.” “Well, here I am,” he deadpanned before he walked out the door. Grace experienced a moment of panic when she realized he was heading toward her bedroom. Something about the idea of Trick prowling around in her private sanctuary made her heartbeat escalate in mixed anxiety and excitement. “Electric chill. Nothing like it,” he murmured as he turned and glanced around her bedroom. “Not much for decorating, are you?” Grace frowned at his condescending tone of voice even as her eyes ran over his length hungrily. Why did something inside her always seem to throb to life in his presence? Rationally she knew it must be lust. Trick would have inspired that in any straight woman with a pulse as he stood there wearing a sweaty, untucked white tshirt and faded jeans that fitted him like they’d been formed just for his singular body, highlighting his long, hard thighs and cupping his sex in a denim pocket that seemed to defy Grace not to stare. His masculinity was so raw. It intimidated her even as it pulled at her. She looked away at the thought. “The movers arrive this weekend with some of our furniture. How much should I pay you for the air conditioners?” she asked. “And the labor, of course.” “Nothing,” he said as he crossed his arms over his chest and examined her impassively. “That’s not acceptable, Trick. I insist on paying you something—” “I did it for the kid, not for you.” She blinked at the degree of venom in his statement. From the expression on his face the strength of his anger had taken him by surprise, as well. He glanced away and took a deep, slow breath. 44
Tricked Truths “You said you were looking for me earlier?” he asked in an obvious attempt at neutrality. Grace, too, was trying to force her racing heart into calm. Her body seemed to have a will of its own when it came to Trick, kicking into the fight or flight response even though she instinctively knew she wasn’t in danger from him. Not the kind of danger that led to bodily harm, anyway. “Yes. Randy told me about this job you’ve offered him.” “Yeah?” Trick prompted impatiently. His shifting feet gave Grace the impression that he wanted to be anywhere at that moment than here. “He’s only twelve, Trick. School has to be a priority for him.” “You’re right. I’ve already talked to him about that and he agreed that his homework needed to be completed before he put in any hours of work. If he’s got a lot of it or a test the next day, then he won’t work at all. He’s told me what kind of grades he used to make. If they go south, then he can say ‘so long’ to the opportunity to making a little pocket cash. We’re only talking about one or two hours in the evenings, and maybe six total hours during the weekend. He can work them around his schedule.” “Oh. It sounds like you’ve got it all figured out, then,” Grace said slowly, surprised that he’d given it so much careful thought. Trick studied her. “What’d you think? That I actually needed an extra employee in the stables and thought I’d take advantage of some child labor? I offered him the job because he’s hungry for some responsibility. He’s not a baby anymore.” “I know that,” Grace replied. “Do you?” he countered swiftly. “He’s mortified that you’re sending him to that babysitter after school.” Her jaw dropped. The fact that Randy had been discussing his inner feelings with Trick, including his complaints about her, left her heart pummeled. 45
Tricked Truths “It’s…it’s not a babysitter. It’s just a lady in town who watches over him until I can pick him up after school. I suppose you have some better idea. Maybe you think he should take the bus home to an empty house so that he can feel more grown up and…and…manly.” “No. He’s not old enough yet to be left unsupervised. But that doesn’t mean he should be treated like a four-year-old as the alternative. He can take the bus with the other kids. I spoke with Ava. She’ll watch over him while he does his homework up at West End and then Indigo will supervise his work in the stables. You’ll be home by that time, anyway.” Grace just stared, genuinely amazed that he’d taken the time and effort to plan all of this. The panic that unfurled in her belly made her go on the defensive. “Thanks so much for consulting me in all of this,” she said sarcastically. “I’m consulting you right now. Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. “The offer is out there. Let him do it or don’t. I’m not going to beg you.” He moved past her toward the door. “I’ll thank you to stop cursing around Randy so much,” Grace said by way of a parting shot. He stopped short of the doorway and turned to look at her, his face taut with emotion. “I’ll thank you to stop the holier-thanthou act. Maybe you don’t get it yet, lady, but you’re sorely miscast in the role.” She stifled a bitter cry of pain. Tears bit at her eyelids and a sharp retort burned her tongue as she watched him saunter out of the room. But Grace already knew the hopelessness of releasing either by the time the screen door slammed shut behind him. **** He couldn’t sleep. He needed to get out of Everly, that’s what he needed. He’d already stayed there for a year longer than he’d planned. Buck 46
Tricked Truths Flynn, a good friend and a foreman at Midwestern Biofuel, had been touted from the very beginning to take over Trick’s management of the plant. The rapid growth of the company had taken them all by surprise, though. Buck was busy with his own duties and never seemed to be convinced that he was ready to take over Trick’s position. Trick had started Midwestern for the challenge and because he had a firm belief that the United States was far too reliant on the middle-eastern countries for fuel. He’d grown up a farm boy and recognized the untapped potential of one of his country’s prime resources. He was proud of what he’d accomplished with Midwestern Biofuel and eager to take up several lucrative offers that had come his way to start a similar project in various locations in midwestern states. Maybe that was the answer to it all. He could scratch his itch to wander and circumvent the entire situation with the unwanted resident of the Widow’s Cottage by just packing up and leaving town. No way that she could try and manipulate or blackmail him if he wasn’t even there. “Coward,” he muttered irritably into the darkness. He turned over restlessly in his mussed bed. He’d avoided her purposefully for the past week and a half, but she seemed to have found a way to overcome the effects of physical separation. At times like this, when sleep escaped him, Grace squeezed into his thoughts. The image of how she’d looked when she approached him tonight outside of the cottage kept flashing into his mind’s eye. He’d willed himself to keep his stare on her face when they spoke but the effort had cost him. She’d been wearing shorts, and her long, slender legs had immediately captured his attention. She’d come a long way from being the knobby-kneed girl he hazily recalled. It struck him that Grace’s exposed limbs were more compelling than other women’s, more sexual…more naked. 47
Tricked Truths The fact that he couldn’t seem to control his own thoughts— or his body’s reaction to them—left him feeling bitter and raw. After everything he knew about her, how the hell could he want her so much? He wondered for the thousandth time if her legs were really as smooth and silky as they looked. He kept envisioning what it would be like to be locked between them as he drove into her pussy, hard and deep. Trick cursed, mentally grasping for the sure antidote to his increasingly graphic fantasies regarding Grace Jamison. He substituted her face for his father’s. He thought of her moans of pleasure. He pictured his father’s satyr-like expression as he rutted on his beautiful child bride. That usually had the effect of pouring ice water on his thickening cock. But not tonight. The antidote wore thin. “Shit,” Trick swore bitterly. He resented her for invading the privacy of his mind. He clutched his swollen, aching cock and began to piston his fist over it slowly. But the images that he’d declared as forbidden were the only ones that promised to give him the relief he required. He tried to imagine one of his more talented past lovers giving him head, but the memories didn’t inspire him. He tried to focus on his memories of fucking Layla Edwards the other night…or no, better yet, on her sucking his dick. Fucking a woman was too intimate these days. Layla probably thought it was the equivalent of him proposing marriage. Or in Layla’s case, proposing divorce, he added to himself with a smirk as his hand continued to stroke his cock. If he’d been smart, he would have insisted that she finish him off with her mouth. Then maybe she wouldn’t be bothering him with her phone calls at the plant or by all the suggestive messages left on his cell phone. How the hell had she gotten his number, anyway? 48
Tricked Truths His irritation interfered with his arousal. He tried to rally. The woman may be annoying but she knew how to suck cock. He imagined the way her mouth had looked the other night at the Trading Post. She’d been wearing a dark red lipstick that highlighted the lush shape of her lips and wide mouth. He’d thought about sliding his dick in and out of those fat, tightly pursed lips more than once as she’d flirted with him outrageously that night. But the problem was that the memory of Layla’s mouth—or any part of her anatomy, for that matter—no longer had the ability to arouse him. It hadn’t for a while. In fact, it seemed garish and vaguely disgusting in retrospect. All Trick could envision was a pair of full, pink lips that were usually unadorned with lipstick or gloss. The night Grace arrived, he’d ravaged her innocent yet shockingly carnal mouth with his own. He’d desecrated it…violated it. Then he’d made love to it ever so briefly. And God he wanted to do all of those things again…and again. He wanted to feast on that luscious mouth and fill his hand with one of the high, firm breasts he’d skimmed against so tantalizingly the night she’d arrived. The imagined sensation of a nipple pressing into his palm like a hard little dart swamped his awareness, shocking him with its realistic effect on his body. He cursed and sat up abruptly in bed when he realized how enthusiastically he’d been pumping his cock as he became lost in his traitorous thoughts. The room was cool but his body felt like it was on fire. His wasn’t the kind of inferno that could be easily quenched from the outside in. He rose and haphazardly pulled on a pair of shorts, grimacing as he buttoned the fly across his cock. His rock-hard erection didn’t abate in the least in the stifling, humid air outdoors. He couldn’t seem to focus on anything but the achy pipe straining behind his fly. Trick laughed under his breath at his ludicrous predicament as he walked along the path in the woods. He felt like some kind of freak circus act. 49
Tricked Truths Come see how man’s perverted thoughts of nailing his stepmother makes him grow a fifth limb! He went completely still for a few seconds when he cleared the woods and saw the lit flashlight resting on the dock. His feet padded silently across the wood. The bra he picked up looked insubstantial and filmy in the dimly cast light. His lips pressed into a hard line. Not that Grace needed much substance. Despite her fullness, her breasts were so firm she didn’t even require the garment. As far as Trick was confirmed, Grace’s breasts defied gravity. He gripped the satiny strips of fabric tightly in his hand and straightened when he heard the water ripple closer to the dock. His cock throbbed more insistently between his thighs. This time he wasn’t walking away. **** Grace surfaced from her plunge into the chillier deep waters of the lake. It had felt refreshing, but even as she acknowledged that, the familiar heavy torpor seemed to weigh on her spirit again. God, she wished this heat wave would pass. She’d thought for sure that Trick’s air conditioner would help her sleep. But as she swam slowly toward her flashlight, she regrettably admitted to herself that perhaps it hadn’t just been the heat that was causing her insomnia. She reached for the dock. “Grace.” She froze, and not just from the shock of the fact that Trick was there in the flesh when he’d formerly existed so pervasively only in her thoughts. He’d said her name. It hadn’t been a question but a subtle acknowledgement. She realized for the first time that she hadn’t heard him say her name since that day so long ago, beside this lake. And then he’d said it on an outward sigh of almost stunned desire. “Give me your hand.” 50
Tricked Truths Maybe that powerful memory was what made her reach up without hesitation. She felt like she was sucked up out of the water when he pulled her up at first by the wrists, then grabbed beneath her arms. The next thing she knew, she was pressed up against his body. His heat was an erotic foil to her surface coolness. She felt it soaking into her from first contact, melting her like the August heat wave was powerless to do…stirring her to life with shocking accuracy. His hands came up to hold her jaw. “Still trespassing, aren’t you?” he whispered hoarsely into the near pitch blackness, his warm breath ghosting her face. “Damn you for that, Grace. You just keep trespassing on my ground.” When he molded his mouth to hers, she moaned helplessly against his lips. All her defenses against him had dried up in their struggle earlier this evening. She couldn’t resist the temptation to taste what would never truly be hers. She opened for him hungrily. He would hate her for it and she knew it, but what else could she do? She was his. She had been since that first day he kissed her by this lake when she was only seventeen years old. God, she’s sweet.Trick’s tongue plunged her depths, stroking, sweeping, rubbing, and savoring. He sealed their lips together and sucked her nectar. The sensation of her bare breasts pressed against his chest, the nipples stiffening against his skin, nearly drove him into a sexual berserk. He wanted to suck on those tips. He wanted to lick them, learn every precious tiny bump, and pull her nipples into even tighter pronouncement. But sucking on his former stepmother’s breasts seemed so personal and intimate. That was the last thing he wanted from her. All he needed was to be granted relief from his constant sexual awareness of her. The knowledge that he wanted her in the same way he wanted his next breath was torturing him…downright killing him. 51
Tricked Truths He broke their carnal kiss roughly. He pressed his thumb to her damp, full lower lip. “I want to know what it’s like to be buried between the lips of a woman who could inspire a man to murder.” She swayed in his arms. It felt as if he’d reeled back and belted her across the jaw. She knew about fury. She had plenty of experience with the type of hate spawned by ignorance. She also knew in a bone deep fashion that it wouldn’t do to struggle against the volcano of Trick’s emotional unrest. So instead, her spirit sprang back into the blow, catching him off-guard. Emotional kinesthetics—they were Grace’s forte. “All right,” she said. For a second, Trick thought he was hearing things. He’d cursed his cruel words the second they’d left his mouth. He’d expected her to be hurt or offended. Her calm agreement to his crude proposal unsettled him. He opened his mouth to try and attenuate his harsh treatment, but before he could speak a word he felt her cool, damp fingers slide between his shorts and his skin. She gripped his waist and lowered to her knees. And Trick knew for the first time in his life why men had been known to choose the lure of mindless pleasure versus harsh reality. His feeble apology dissipated off his tongue in the sultry night air when he felt the first flicker of flame on his straining cock. A small fire could be a subtle thing, a weak wavering light inspired by the casual movement of fingers on a lighter, only to be quenched and forgotten a moment later. But a small, licking flame could also ignite a mighty inferno if the fuel was laid just so. The amount of incendiary material he’d built up for Grace must have been monumental. At her first touch as she encircled her fingers around the stalk of his penis, at the first curious swirl of her cool tongue around the head, neural explosions seemed to detonate in the primitive part of his brain. An unstoppa52
Tricked Truths ble cascade of sensation blazed through him. The electric shockwaves resounded down his spinal cord and branched out to every sensory nerve of his body. He transformed from flesh to fire, from man to primitive, pleasure-mandating animal in a matter of seconds. “Fuck, yes,” he groaned. His fingers spread across her skull, gripping her to him tightly. She vacuumed him into her humid depths. Her strong right hand fisted him just below her tight lips, jacking him with mind-altering precision as she squeezed his girth further and further into the heaven of her mouth. Maybe some naïve part of him had hoped she would be a novice. But he surrendered that childish delusion with savage abandon. Better that she was an expert. Yes…much better that she made even the best blow job he’d ever received fade into an abysmally distant second place. Trick was drawn into a void of pleasure where thought was blessedly absent. Only sensation remained, the feeling of his fingers entwined in the strands of her long, wet hair, defying her to stop, the eye-crossing sensation of her cool hand and tight lips pistoning over him, gratifying him in every way his own hand couldn’t begin to accomplish earlier. Her tongue was a bittersweet torment, flicking along the sides of his length, teasing his sweet spot, swirling around the hypersensitive head. And when she sucked, she did it so hungrily…like her very existence hinged on his pleasure. He had to use every last ounce of his control to keep from plunging his length into her throat. As if she’d intuited his thoughts she took a long, even breath and ducked her head forward rapidly. He gasped at the sensation of her muscular throat constricting around the tip of his cock. He knew nothing but animalistic pleasure for several moments as she accepted every one of his deep thrusts without protest. Once she gagged but she recovered so quickly that Trick wondered if it had been his imagination. She 53
Tricked Truths pulled back, raking her teeth across the hypersensitized skin on the crown of his cock before she took him deep and forcefully once again. A tsunami of pleasure reared over him. He bucked between her clamping lips, fast and furious and knew he couldn’t stand the exquisite agony a moment longer. “I’m going to come,” he snarled. Despite the fact that he’d said it as a warning so she could release him if she chose, his fingers gripped her head tighter in a silent, desperate plea. He needn’t have been concerned. She sucked him fast and deep, seeming just as eager for his release as he was to give it to her. His fingers formed into rigid claws of desire in her hair as he crested. Trick’s shout as he plunged over the edge of orgasm seemed like the primitive, vaguely chilling sound of triumph that a warrior makes following a bloody battle. But he quashed it quickly, until it became nothing more than a contained growl as his cum spurted hot and thick into her throat. She sucked at his stalk and cupped his testicles, hungry for more of the primal essence that was made perhaps even more precious by his obvious internal conflict about giving it to her. He would never know how thrilling his virility was to her at that moment, how sweet his excitement. He tasted so wonderful, like salt, musk and satisfied man. She continued to milk him greedily even when it was obvious that he was utterly spent. She didn’t want the moment to end. But of course it did. Grace closed her eyes and slowly slid his semi-erect flesh from her mouth. He didn’t move or speak as she sat back on her knees and felt the dock for her clothing. The light from the flashlight did little to illuminate his large, looming form. She could barely make out the dark, crinkly hair sprinkled across his right thigh, knee and calf and the outline of his khaki shorts, 54
Tricked Truths now lying rumpled around his ankles. She watched as he grabbed the sole garment of clothing and pulled it up. By the time he’d fastened his shorts, Grace had put on her bra and shrugged into her lightweight cotton dress. She felt his stare on her as she stood and slipped her feet through her panties. Grace would have expected the moment to be awkward when they finally faced each other in the darkness. She sensed the old, familiar tension that always arced between them—not diminished as she would have thought given the circumstances but instead somehow amplified. She wondered if he’d read her mind when she turned to walk off the dock and he grabbed her elbow, stilling her. “I’m going to want more.” He already wanted more, Trick admitted to himself as his cock twanged with renewed arousal. He sensed more than saw the way her chin lowered and her neck bent. The gesture struck him on some mysterious level, increasing his confusion and unrest. He wanted to cradle her head in his palm. The energy that he expended to resist doing just that infuriated him. “I guess now I know why Len Mallet would have resorted even to murder in order to have you.” He heard her gasp. Even though he couldn’t see her in the blackness he reached out unerringly to grab her upper arm, already knowing she would try and flee. He jerked her back against his body. “I don’t know why I want you so much,” he said bitterly. “You’re like a poison in my blood. I will purge you.” Her refusal to speak enraged him even further. “You want me too, Grace,” he hissed. He took a modicum of satisfaction in the fact that she didn’t dare to deny it. This time when she desperately tugged on her arm, he let her go.
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Chapter 4 It was a challenge to avoid Trick the next morning. The moving van arrived by seven, and Grace was in and out of the cottage as she directed the movers to where she wanted her furniture to go. In the bright light of morning what had occurred out on the dock last night had taken on the quality of a dream. When she’d showered just after dawn she had pulled a tiny twig from her hair. She’d stared at the piece of refuse in wonder as though she held the indisputable truth in her very hands that she had indeed felt Trick convulse so powerfully in orgasm while he was positioned deep within her throat. But that piece of evidence was really unnecessary because she’d woken up with his salty essence still on her lips. She’d asked herself hundreds of time this morning why she’d allowed it to happen. And each and every time she’d recalled how she’d felt when Trick had kissed her and his rigid restraint had snapped free. His raw, intense lust thrilled her in a way she’d never experienced. She wasn’t capable of resisting him. She mentally congratulated herself when she hadn’t seen him by ten thirty as the movers backed out of the long drive. She recognized that her good fortune likely had nothing to do with her own actions and everything to do with Trick being the one who was successfully avoiding her. Her suspicion was confirmed when Ava knocked on the screen door just before noon, carrying a plate full of sandwiches and a pitcher of lemonade. 56
Tricked Truths “Reinforcements have arrived,” she called out cheerfully when Grace answered the door. “Bless you, Ava,” she said with genuine appreciation. “Please come and join us.” “Don’t mind if I do,” Ava said. “I’ve never actually been inside the Widow’s Cottage.” It was while Ava, Randy and she ate delicious chicken salad sandwiches and fresh fruit that Ava casually revealed that Trick had been up and gone before dawn. “He does that sometimes,” Ava explained as she sat back after her second sandwich and patted her round belly contentedly. “He likes to go out and check the fields with Hal.” “Hal’s the manager of the farm, isn’t he? And Indigo manages the stables?” Randy asked as he popped a grape into his mouth. Grace had told him that he was allowed to start working in the stables on a trial basis to see how things went. His excitement to start the grown-up adventure currently brimmed out of his blue eyes. “Yep,” Ava said lazily as she took a sip of lemonade. “Hal is up and at it way before dawn. Trick usually tells me when he’s making the morning rounds with him so I can have his coffee ready for him extra early. He didn’t say anything about it last evening but I guess it’s a man’s prerogative to change his mind in the middle of the night, huh?” Grace hoped the observant older woman didn’t notice her blush at her innocent question. She also hoped that Ava didn’t detect the way she kept glancing out the window, wondering when Trick was going to return. She caught herself doing it for the rest of the afternoon while she worked at getting the small house in order. Following dinner, however, exhaustion overcame her. She collapsed in front of the television and forgot about Trick for a solid fifteen minutes. 57
Tricked Truths Which is why she was surprised to hear the soft knock on her screen door. “Doug, this is a surprise.” She opened the door to the tall, thin, distinguished-looking older man who had been Evan’s lawyer and now served in the same capacity for Trick. “Not an unwelcome one, I hope,” he said with an apologetic grin. He glanced around the living room which was quickly gaining order although still showed signs of chaos after the arrival of the moving van. “No, of course not. A lot of our furniture was delivered earlier this morning but things are slowly falling into place. Please sit down.” After she’d retrieved a glass of iced tea for him from the kitchen, she settled down into the couch. “Didn’t we cover all the bases when you visited last week?” Doug set down his glass of iced tea on a coaster and sat back soberly. “No, Grace. I’m not so sure that things have been settled at all.” **** When Trick noticed Grayson’s sedate Mercedes parked in his driveway he assumed he’d find him sitting in his kitchen chatting with Ava. But when Ava said she hadn’t realized Doug had even arrived, Trick left West End and walked slowly across the courtyard toward the Widow’s Cottage. His discomfort at seeing Grace again after what had happened between them last night faded when he stepped onto the small front porch and Doug’s voice trickled out through the screen door. “If you won’t make it official, may I have your word of honor then, Grace? It’s true that the contract lost much of its influence after his death, but surely you wouldn’t disrespect Evan’s wishes in such a blatant fashion.” “I told you last week I can’t make a promise that I’m not sure I can keep. I don’t know how I feel about it at this point. It was Evan’s issue, not mine,” Grace answered in a low voice. 58
Tricked Truths “Is that why you came back to Everly?” Trick sensed Grace’s hesitation. “Not specifically, no.” “But you must be planning to do it.” “I’m telling you the truth when I say that I didn’t come back to Everly for that, Doug,” Grace said. “Have you really thought about all the ramifications if you did do it?” Trick waited tensely during the long pause that followed. “Of course I have. I know you think my motivation for keeping quiet all these years was the money, but that’s not the only reason. I don’t want to see anyone get hurt.” “It was a drastic thing to do, moving back here. Those don’t seem like the actions of a woman who is uncertain,” Doug pushed. “Maybe they don’t,” Grace said with a touch of finality. “Doug, Evan gave you the power to have the final say on this. You’re going to have to trust me when I say that nothing as of yet has made me change my mind about the fact that Evan’s secret is best kept.” Trick couldn’t take anymore of this. He pushed open the screen door roughly. “What you’re asking is a far stretch for just about anyone who knows about your history of trustworthiness, wouldn’t you say?” he demanded. He unstuck his gaze from Grace’s pale face and glared at Grayson accusingly. “Mind if I ask what the hell you’re doing?” “Trick, this doesn’t concern—” Grace began. “Be quiet,” Trick ordered. “I asked you a question, Doug. Are you my lawyer, or not?” “Of course I am,” Doug answered as he rose to his feet. “But I was your father’s lawyer as well.” Trick glanced around mockingly. “Yeah, so what? I don’t see Evan anywhere.” “Of course not. But his widow is, Trick.” 59
Tricked Truths Trick’s gaze sliced over to Grace. “My father’s only wife died when I was sixteen years old.” He waited for her reaction, but as usual Grace remained distant…impervious. It infuriated him further. “I thought you had your own personal lawyer who handled all the money Evan was stupid enough to leave you in his will.” “I do. And he didn’t leave the money to me, Trick. You know he left it in trust to Randy.” The sound of her low, smooth voice tickling his ear made him forget for a second why he was so pissed off. Damn, she had the power to throw him off the scent. She and Doug had been discussing the real reason she’d returned to Everly and he refused to be sidetracked by her big, soft eyes or the thrill of her velvety voice. “With you as the executor,” he added snidely. “Is that what’s really behind you showing up here at the Widow’s Cottage where you’re not wanted? Did you already go through the kid’s inheritance and have no other place to stay?” Grace practically leapt off the sofa, surprising him. “I’ve never touched that money. Not that it’s any of your damned business.” “He’s my brother. Why shouldn’t he be my business?” Trick roared. For a moment the two of them remained frozen in a tableau of conflicting emotions and hurtful truths. Grace was the first to move. She glanced down unseeingly at the coffee table, temporarily blinded by the fury in Trick’s eyes. “Maybe you’re right,” she said quietly. “I’ll see that Randy’s trust fund statements are released to you.” Doug’s mouth fell open in surprise. “Grace, that’s not necessary. Trick has no legal grounds for requesting those records.” “Whose fucking side are you on, Grayson?” Trick asked in bitter amazement. “No,” Grace answered Doug as though Trick had never had the outburst. “But he has personal grounds. Trick is the only family that Randy has living besides me. Now, if you both don’t mind?” 60
Tricked Truths she asked evenly as she gestured toward the front door. “I have some work I need to attend to.” **** She’d dismissed them. She’d dismissed him. True, he’d trespassed where he wasn’t invited, yelled at and insulted her in her own home. How was it that she always came off so cool and aloof, like she was bloody royalty or something, when Trick knew damn well she’d probably never worn a brand new pair of shoes until his father picked her up out of the Indiana dirt and dusted off the inchthick layer of poverty? How did a woman go about getting so damned confident when half the state of Indiana and a good portion of Kentucky knew she’d been caught red-handed by his father with another man’s dick in her mouth, and that in the scuffle that followed, Evan had been shot and killed by her lover? He shifted restlessly in bed, feeling like his entire body was a live wire. He grimaced when he noticed the glowing numerals on his nightstand clock. Well, he’d managed to go an entire thirty seconds this time without thinking about Grace. About Grace and sex. It had been a mistake to recall the lurid details of his father’s murder because it made him think of last night. He clenched his eyes together tightly as if to avoid the memory. She’d flayed him alive with her mouth and the exquisite torture continued even now. Trick felt like he was splitting apart, his mind insisting that he stay put while his body strained toward the woman who had paved the path to his father’s grave. I want to know what it’s like to be buried between the lips of a woman who could inspire a man to murder. Now he knew. The knowledge seemed to burn his flesh from the inside out. 61
Tricked Truths “Careful what you ask for, asshole,” he muttered in selfdisgust as he leapt off the bed and reached for a pair of jeans. **** “Grace. Wake up.” Grace came into wakefulness immediately at the sound of Trick’s voice. “Trick? What’s wrong? Is it Randy?” she murmured groggily she sat bolt upright in the bed. He leaned over and turned the switch on her newly installed bedside lamp to the dimmest setting. “No. Randy’s sleeping. He’s fine.” She glanced around her room in vague disorientation and then back at Trick where he sat at the edge of her bed. Her eyes widened. He wasn’t wearing anything but a pair of jeans. His arm and shoulder muscles looked hard and dense and…strangely succulent in the dim light. She clearly envisioned sinking her front teeth into the rounded muscle that capped his shoulder. The direction of her thoughts turned her disorientation into wariness. “How did you get in here?” “I have a key,” he replied bluntly. “Oh. Of course.” She couldn’t think of what else to say. “Are you going to tell me what you and Grayson were talking about so secretly today?” “No. Not yet, Trick.” “Are you two plotting against me?” He started in surprise when she abruptly laughed. Grace noticed his expression and made an effort to control herself. “I’m sorry. It just sounded funny popping out of your mouth so seriously. Don’t you think you’re being a little paranoid, Trick?” Trick frowned as his eyes fixed on her mouth. Grace wondered if he looked at her so strangely because he’d never heard her laugh before…or didn’t know she was capable of it. 62
Tricked Truths “What else am I supposed to think when I come upon my own lawyer begging you not to spill some secret that relates to my father?” he demanded. All vestiges of laughter faded from her face. She sighed as she reached around her neck and smoothed her thick hair until it all hung over one shoulder. “You heard that much, then?” When he didn’t answer immediately Grace’s eyes snapped up to his face. He stared unblinkingly at the neckline of her nightgown. Grace wondered if she should put on a robe, but the gown was in fact, almost the epitome of modesty. Could he see through the cheap fabric even in the dim light? Is that why his blue eyes glint like a hungry animal’s when it spots its prey? “Yeah,” he said hoarsely after a pause. “I heard that much. Enough to make me worry.” “Is that why you’re here? Because you’re worried?” A muscle leapt in his lean cheek. “You know that’s not why I’m here.” Grace swallowed with difficulty. His fiery eyes seemed to make her body feel heavy…achy. Even her tongue felt thick as she whispered, “How can you want to make love to me when you despise me so much?” “I don’t want to make love to you,” he said bluntly. “I’m not so sure I even want to fuck you. All I can think of is my father doing the same before me. The thought makes me sick.” “It always had to be a competition between the two of you, didn’t it?” “If it was, it wasn’t by my choice,” he ground out. His volatile emotions frothed alarmingly at the sadness that laced her words. This is what he’d stooped to—accepting pity from his adulteress stepmother. He shoved his hand between the silky curtain of her hair and her skull and forced her chin up. Her gray eyes looked huge as she gazed up at him. 63
Tricked Truths “Good thing Evan was always such a traditionalist. Never missed a Sunday of church, did he? Upstanding, God-fearing citizen…” Trick muttered distractedly as he stared down at her face. “Somehow I can’t imagine him making love to you in a manner that wasn’t fully sanctified in the Bible. So how about this, Grace…how about if I have you in all the ways the Bible says that we’ll go straight to Hell for?” For several long, tense seconds, neither spoke as he watched her emotions battle on the screen of her beautiful face. Finally her sealed lips cracked open. “Do you think that will make you feel better, Trick?” His slashing grin connoted anything but amusement. “I think it’s going to make me feel fucking fantastic. And you know something else, Grace?” he asked as he craned his head forward and their lips almost brushed. “I think you want it that way with me as much as I want it with you.” Grace’s nostrils unintentionally flared as she inhaled his scent. Her pussy flooded with liquid heat. She knew that he wanted her solely as an object to slake his desire and fury. But she loved him…craved him so much that she was willing to allow even that harsh blow to her pride. “Lock the door,” she requested in a low voice. The air conditioning would muffle any noise they made from Randy’s ears. “You lock it,” he bit out. She was the first to break their stare. She understood his bitter ambivalence. He was trying to insult her, push her away even as he drew her into his storm of angry passion. But he hadn’t bet on the fact that Grace held a motherload of desire inside of her that was just bursting at its restraints, eager to flow fast and free. Trick watched her as she tossed the covers aside and stood. Her calves looked pale and slender beneath her nightgown, her feet soft and tender…strangely vulnerable. Blood pounded into his cock, tightening his jeans across his crotch uncomfortably. 64
Tricked Truths “Take off your gown,” he ordered when she turned around and faced him after locking the door. As he spoke he worked open the first few buttons of his fly to give himself some room to breathe. But he got no respite from his raging lust as she calmly pulled up the bottom of her gown with both hands and brought it over her head. Grace dropped the nightgown awkwardly to the floor. She didn’t know what to make of Trick’s fixed stare and rigid expression. Her self-consciousness only grew as his eyes lowered over her with slow deliberation. “What happened to your breast?” Her hand jerked up spasmodically at his harsh question as though to cover the breast. She caught herself almost immediately. The offending hand fell back to her side. Trick’s eyes narrowed at her rare sign of vulnerability. “I had a cyst removed a few months ago. The doctor says the scar should eventually completely fade,” she whispered. “Come here.” She walked slowly toward where he sat on the edge of the bed, finally pausing in front of his spread knees. His blue eyes felt like lasers on her body. His inspection felt so intense that she swung her chin over her shoulder, turning her face away from him. She started when she felt his touch on the tender skin of the lower slope of her breast. She wouldn’t have guessed that his calloused fingers could be so gentle. Tears unexpectedly swelled into her eyes when she felt him brush ever so lightly against the thin, one inch white scar. She sensed his hesitation. Then he whisked his fingertips across a nipple just as softly. Grace moaned shakily as the sensitive flesh pulled tight and an arrow of pleasurable pain shot straight to her clit. “Look at me,” he demanded. “Look at me, Grace.” His jaw clenched when she complied and he read the vulnerability in her soft gray eyes. 65
Tricked Truths “I’m not an animal. All you have to do is tell me to stop. Is that what you want?” he asked in a hard tone. Grace shook her head. A single drop of wetness skipped down her cheek at the movement. “No. I…want to,” she replied in a choked voice. Fuck. Trick didn’t want to see her eyes shimmering with tears. He certainly didn’t want to surrender to the almost overwhelming urge to lean forward and worship her pink-tipped, petal soft breast, which was somehow made more perfect by the small white scar. He’d lose himself if he did. Instead, he grimly reached down and whisked her panties down over her hips and bottom. Without preamble he reached up and wedged the ridge of his forefinger between the tender folds of her labia before her panties had skimmed past her knees. Grace gasped in shock. Her hands rose blindly to his shoulders, as though instinctively she knew that she needed to secure herself for a stormy ride. His big hand palmed her entire left buttock as he held her against the glide of his finger. She stared over his shoulder blindly as he sandwiched her between the two subtle pressures to build a friction in her clit with agonizing accuracy. “Do you like that, Grace?” he asked after a moment as he tore his eyes from the sight of her flushed labia peeking out of a nest of neatly-trimmed light brown hair. He glanced up. A light coat of perspiration was forming on her cheeks and chest. She stared blankly over his shoulder as her breath fell past her parted lips in uneven pants. Her pink nipples had pulled into tiny hard red darts. He growled low in his throat at the arousing sight. “Answer me.” Her pupils were dilated in arousal when she met his gaze, making her eyes look dark and glazed with passion. “Yes,” she conceded shakily.
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Tricked Truths Trick gripped a firm ass cheek, pulling her closer to him. His head dipped lower, skimming her smooth belly. Grace made a small, tortured sound. His nostrils flared as he caught her scent. He grabbed one of her hands. “Spread the lips wide. Open yourself to me.” For the second time that evening, he saw her hand start in shock. But she recovered quickly enough. He bit back a moan when she parted the moist, swollen folds and exposed her most vulnerable, sensitive flesh to him. He flicked his tongue over her in a teasing, questing gesture. But once he registered her exquisite taste, he knelt next to the bed and pressed her tightly to him. He coated his tongue in her essence, lashing at her with a stiffened tongue until her struggles to stifle her cries failed and she whimpered in unceasing agony. He slowed to a sliding, pressing caress until she cooled slightly. And when his instincts told him the time was right, he worked his strong lips and tongue over her again, sucking and vibrating her erect clit, drowning himself in her juices. He showed her no mercy when she attempted to quiet her desperate cries or when she began to quake in orgasm. His hand fixed her securely in place as he nursed her through her tumult. Grace hadn’t really recovered from the jolting onslaught of pleasure when she realized she was rising through the air. She gave a surprised cry, temporarily unable to identify what was happening to her with the majority of sensory nerves in her body still firing madly. She fell back onto her bed with a soft thud. Trick spread her legs and knelt between them, his arm muscles bulging as he held himself off her upper body. She reached up and touched a hard, flexing bicep. “That was one of the first things I noticed about you…the way your muscles looked when you pulled Kenny out of the water. I knew you would save him because you were so strong,” she ram67
Tricked Truths bled, not really expecting him to answer. She felt drunk…euphoric following his focused lovemaking and her powerful orgasm. The boundaries that she normally erected against him for her own safety had disintegrated to dust. His only response was to kneel and part her thighs again. He lifted her to him like she was a fleshy bowl, drinking freely of the flowing juices from his former labors, claiming his right…his due. His tongue ladled her essence, dipping and drawing until he drowned his senses in the sea of sensation that was Grace. Still, he reached high inside of her honeyed depths, vibrating his tongue, searching blindly for more sweetness. Grace held onto his shoulders, calling his name repeatedly. Surely what he was doing to her was a pleasure too monumental to be experienced in an earthy form. His quick, strong tongue and hot mouth made her feel so alive, so carnal…and yet so cherished. The small part of her brain that held itself separate and safe from the experience tried to warn her that Trick didn’t cherish her—he didn’t even like her. As if he sensed that she held back, he slid his tongue from her molten hole and replaced it with a thick finger. He held her lips apart with the other hand while he gave her clit a brisk whipping with his tongue, telling her with actions what he thought of her reserve even as he incinerated it. Grace made a choking noise in her throat at the electrifying sensation. She felt herself skating precariously on the crest of another powerful orgasm. Trick existed on the sharp edge between pleasure and pain, between restraint and explosion. His heart beat in sync with the heavy pulse at his cock. When he felt Grace break again beneath him, he was nearly blinded with a primitive need to mate. But then she did something that cleared his vision. She clutched his head in mindless abandon while she came and called his name. 68
Tricked Truths John. And she didn’t just say it once. She cried it out, she whispered it, she whimpered it in stunned pleasure. He leaned over her aggressively, his blue eyes glittering with anger. “Don’t call me that again. Ever,” he ordered in a hard voice. Grace blinked as minor spasms still shimmered through her body. His eyes were frightening in their intensity as he looked down into her face. Her juices slicked his mouth, chin, and even his nose. It took her a moment to realize that he’d worked his hand between their bodies. He was fisting his cock, pumping hard and fast. She made a small, anxious sound and brought her hands up to touch him. She wanted more than anything to return the pleasure that he’d just given her. But he caught her wrists with the quickness of a snake striking, pulling them both over her head, pinning them to the mattress. He straddled her stomach and resumed pumping his long, thick cock, his gaze fixed on her breasts. Then Grace understood. This was what he wanted, for her to give everything of herself while he gave her nothing, not even the pleasure of knowing that she’d pleased him. Well…perhaps not nothing. He clenched his eyelids together and growled gutturally. Grace turned her head into the pillow and shut her own eyes at the shamefully poignant feeling of his warm cum spurting onto her bare breasts. That was all he had to give her.
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Chapter 5 The tension didn’t build between them—it was just suddenly there, potent and thick. Trick realized that he still held her wrists bound in his hand and released her abruptly. “Don’t call me John,” he repeated, feeling like a fool. But he needed to say it for some reason. She merely stared at him in mute silence. His jeans weren’t that far down his thighs. When he stood, he hitched them up below his waist and rapidly buttoned the fly. He was acutely aware that Grace hadn’t moved. Christ, why didn’t she cover herself? Her nudity, the vulnerable pose, his own seed glistening on her beautiful breasts—the sight was doing strange things to him, not the least powerful of which was arousing him again with alarming speed. Grace looked more naked than other women without clothes. He’d never considered that nudity could have degrees, but the woman lying on the bed right now was proof of it. He wanted to touch her everywhere. He wanted to taste her everywhere. And the next time, he wanted to come deep inside her body. Great. He began to walk across the room. So much for the idea of ridding himself of her pervasive presence in his thoughts. If anything, he felt more hounded by his sexual awareness of her than he had before he’d arrived in her bedroom. Did she really tasted that good? Is it even possible for a woman to be so sweet…so responsive? Surely it had been his imagination… 70
Tricked Truths He stopped at the sound of her quiet voice behind him, but he wouldn’t allow himself to turn around and look at her. “Why not?” “Why not what?” “Why don’t you want me to call you John?” Grace asked slowly. His lip curled, baring his teeth at that. Once again she’d carried the innocent bit too far. “Because I hate that name, that’s why,” he muttered darkly as he swung open her bedroom door. As far as Trick was concerned, being called John was the same as being labeled a stupid sucker. He’d hated his given name ever since he’d understood who and what Grace really was and was still forced to live for thirteen years with the haunting memory of that name slipping past her beautiful lips as she gasped with awakened desire. **** Grace finally forced herself to move after a minute of lying there alone, hurting and bewildered. After she’d cleaned up, redressed and gotten into bed, she stared into the darkness for a long time, unable to sleep. Trick hadn’t always hated his given name… **** “You should take it all the way off. You don’t want to get tan lines, do you?” A seventeen-year-old Grace yelped, dropping the bottle of suntan lotion on the dock. The hand that had been busy tucking the straps of her bikini top down into the cups instinctively pushed the flimsy fabric into her breasts instead. “Personally, I think swimsuits are a waste of time.” “How did you get there all of a sudden?” she exclaimed in an unnaturally high voice. After a moment she recognized him through her shock. Only his head and hands were currently in her view. She glanced down 71
Tricked Truths nervously, thinking about what he’d just said. But the majority of Trick Burnett’s large, lean body was underwater. She’d known him immediately when she looked into his striking blue eyes. They sparkled with deviltry, looking so different than that time on this same dock four years ago when they’d been sober and concerned. Still, Grace would have recognized those eyes anywhere. Trick nodded across the lake to a clearing in the trees. “I was spying on you from over there. Thought I’d better come over to see if you’re as suspicious-looking up close as you are from far away.” Despite her discomfort Grace couldn’t help but respond to the merriment in his eyes. “And am I?” she asked, her lips twitching into a grin as she retrieved the suntan lotion. “Yes. Suspiciously too pretty to be something I would find in Everly, Indiana in the middle of a West End cornfield.” Grace smiled and shook her head, attempting to diminish the impact his statement had on her heart rate. Hadn’t Evan told her that Trick was a born flirt? And he hadn’t been talking figuratively either. Evan swore there was a nurse on the maternity unit where Trick was born who practically wouldn’t release Baby Boy Burnett into Myra’s arms, she had become so attached to the infant. Grace had no problem believing that story while she was fully under the spell of Trick’s heady stare. “What’s your name?” “Grace Jamison,” she answered hesitantly. She knew that Evan hadn’t spoken to his son yet about her. Trick had returned to West End less than two weeks ago. “I don’t suppose you need any help with that, do you, Grace?” Trick teased, but his eyes were sultry as he watched her smooth suntan lotion on a firm thigh. “I think I can handle it,” Grace replied tartly.
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Tricked Truths Trick pushed himself further up on the dock and placed his chin on his folded forearms. The manner in which he watched her reminded Grace of how a cat mesmerized its prey. “I thought you were helping Eddie Mathis break that stallion of his over in Crawfordsville,” she said. Trick looked surprised by her intimate knowledge of who he was. “How do you know what I’ve been doing for the past week?” Her hands paused in their tying action. “Your father told me.” “He did?” Trick’s eyebrows went up speculatively. “You work on one of his crews?” West End was a large property. Evan employed dozens of local youth during the summer to help out with seasonal labor such as walking beans or detasseling hybrid seed corn. His question made her force a smile. “That’s how I first met your father.” His gaze flickered down appreciatively over her body. “So you’ve decided to give up on work and just laze around in the sunshine today, is that it?” Grace laughed. “I do it rarely enough. I don’t think there’s any risk of me becoming a complete wastrel.” She paused and blinked when he smiled. Trick’s grin was a phenomenon a woman required warning for, even though Grace doubted there was any inoculation available for that flash of white teeth in his dark face. “You know my name?” “Yes. You’re Trick Burnett. Most people in Everly know your name. You’re a legend around here. Local Boy Who Made Good.” “It must not take much to earn the title,” he murmured wryly. “So…did you come out here just to laze around or are you going to get in the water?” Grace froze when he reached out and rubbed a white streak of undissolved lotion into her thigh. He did it without hesitation, as 73
Tricked Truths though it was the most natural thing in the world for him to be caressing her naked leg just inches away from the edge of her bikini bottoms. The July sun was nothing compared to the heat Trick’s hand created when he deeply massaged her muscle. She should have slapped his hand away. What he was doing went way beyond getting fresh, as Gran called the clumsy overtures adolescent boys made toward Grace. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Instead she just stared in hypnotized fascination at the way his flesh looked against her own. His skin was much darker than hers. The tendons and veins that stood out on the back of his hand hinted boldly at his strength. Dark brown hairs dusted his knuckles. His masculinity awakened something deep within in her, something primitive…something imperative. “I was going to get in when I got hot enough,” she finally answered. “And you’re not hot enough now?” “I…I guess I am…getting that way, I mean.” His grin widened. She had the impression he enjoyed a joke at her expense, but she couldn’t bring herself to get miffed at him. His possessive grip on her sun-warmed thigh belied the casual tone of his voice. “Well, come on, then. What are you waiting for? I’ll race you out to the dock,” he challenged, referring to the floating dock anchored to the center of the lake. Grace eyed him warily as she sat up and self-consciously adjusted her suit. He’d pushed back from the dock and was effortlessly treading water while he watched her with an expression of amusement. She knew she shouldn’t. She was quite certain it was a mistake. It was undoubtedly one hundred percent selfish of her to indulge in childish fantasies that would lead nowhere…that could lead nowhere. 74
Tricked Truths But none of those admonishments stopped her from easing herself into the cold water next to Trick. “Do you find something about me to be entertaining?” she asked with what she hoped was a casual manner when his blue eyes continued to glint with humor as he studied her. “Your face is very expressive. There’s not much you don’t give away.” Her eyes widened at that. Surely he hadn’t been reading her thoughts when he’d been touching her thigh, had he? “What do you mean?” she asked slowly. “I figured there was a fifty-fifty chance of you getting in the lake with me. I’m glad you found me to be so convincing.” She blushed at that, which Trick had expected, of course. “I didn’t get into the water with you. I got into the water because I felt like it,” Grace said as she glided past him. Trick was right beside her in a second. “You like to swim?” “Yes.” “You’re not one of those girls who refuses to get her hair wet?” Grace rolled her eyes at that. “Look at my hair. Does it look like it would matter if I got it wet? It’ll dry quicker than yours.” “I like it.” He reached out of the water and fit the back of her head into his large palm. Grace’s gaze flashed to meet his at the gesture. What she saw in his eyes wasn’t something she’d ever encountered. She didn’t know how to respond. “I’m swimming out to the dock, then,” she said awkwardly after a suspended moment. “I’ll be right beside you,” he replied, his palm still cupping her head. Grace plunged under the water, anxious to submerse herself in the chill and regain a measure of sanity. She was a good swim75
Tricked Truths mer. But as she turned her head to take a breath every fourth stroke, she recognized that Trick was only using a small percentage of his strength to remain at her side. Even when she sped up he kept pace with her almost negligently. She wished she could just watch him. It was such a rare thing to be in the presence of such a natural, gifted athlete. Not to mention being in such close proximity to his phenomenal body. It took Grace several seconds to find her natural rhythm again after that thought. They shared a smile as they reached up for the dock simultaneously. “You were holding out. You’re a good swimmer,” he complimented. Grace reached for the ladder. “I used to compete in freestyle and butterfly on the swim team.” She met his gaze again as she pulled herself out of the water. “Not that I believe for a second that you were even trying to keep up with me.” “I wasn’t going to let you get away, that’s all,” he said lightly as he rose up after her. Something about the gleam in his gaze told her he’d noticed the way her eyes had traveled over his body anxiously before they stuck on his crotch like wet denim. A sexual awareness that seemingly could have tipped a scale suddenly weighted the humid air between them. Grace swallowed and turned her head, blinking rapidly. She felt disoriented, and it wasn’t from the effect of the bright sun bouncing off the lake, either. At least he’d been wearing a pair of cut-off shorts, which was better than the total nudity she’d been dreading—or anticipating, she couldn’t say which—given what he’d teased her about earlier. She grasped desperately for the last thread of their conversation as she sat on the dock and he came down next to her. “Marty Geller told me once that the butterfly wasn’t even your stroke, but that when the regular swimmer was ill during the 76
Tricked Truths state semifinals meet your junior year of high school, you filled in for him.” A grin broke over Trick’s face. “Ol’ Yeller Geller—the coach of the swim team?” Grace smiled. She hadn’t even been fully looking into his face, but she felt the impact of his grin in unexpected places in her body. “Yes. He said that you substituted for the regular swimmer and proceeded to dash all the dreams of the boy from Carmel who held the record for the event in Indiana.” “S’right? I don’t remember.” Grace glanced up at him sharply. Had it been false modesty? No, he appeared honestly not to remember and not to particularly care one way or another if he ever did. Grace wondered what it would be like to be twenty-four years old and to have already led such a full life that moments of success such as the one she’d mentioned were merely crowded out of the memory. No wonder Evan’s tone took on such a proud quality when he spoke of his only son, even if irritability and discontent did often mix with that pride…in truth, making it sound more like envy. Trick had been back for a rare summer visit to West End now for almost two weeks, and he’d never hung around the house long enough to meet Grace. This fact obviously frustrated Evan to no end. Yet his son’s restless spirit and natural popularity among the hometown crowd seemed to make Evan proud, as well. Grace had determined almost from the very beginning that Evan and Trick had a strained, unusual relationship. “What about you? I’ll bet you’ve got a few trophies in your bedroom,” Trick said. Grace drew her knees up to her chest. “I won my share of meets,” she admitted. She jumped when she felt his forefinger on her chin. Her eyes widened when she allowed him to turn her head. He leaned close. “What were you just thinking about?” 77
Tricked Truths Her lips fell open. Despite her surprise at his sudden nearness and actions, the warmth in his eyes held her spellbound. The heat that seemed to vibrate from his long, lean body found a focused conduit. Energy seemed to pour from his flesh into hers as if his damp finger had been a magic wand. Whatever his smile had awoken in her earlier, his touch made surge fast and hot in her blood. Of course it was impossible that Trick could have divined her thoughts at that moment. She would die of mortification if he ever found out that she’d become interested in swimming ever since she’d watched him knife through the lake waters to save Kenny, or how she used to pepper Coach Geller with questions about Trick. Perhaps Kenny hadn’t been the only one to acquire an idol that summer so long ago. “Grace?” he asked softly. Her breath froze on an inhale. “I…nothing, really. I was thinking… about my brother.” He studied her intently for several prolonged seconds. Grace felt alarmingly transparent beneath his stare, as if he could read her lie like bold text. “Call me John.” He was perhaps more caught off-guard by his request than she. Why had he said it? He’d never asked it of another soul in his life. Perhaps it had something to do with his thoughts about how unique she was, how satiny her skin felt beneath his fingertip, how big and soft her eyes were as she gazed up at him or the elusive, tantalizing scent of her body his nostrils flared to capture. The fact of the matter was he wanted to hear her call him something no other human being had for his entire adult life. “John?” she asked dazedly. She seemed to be questioning him about the unique phenomenon that had been occurring ever since they looked into each other’s eyes ten minutes ago. Trick leaned forward and touched her lips with his own, giving her the only knowledge he possessed. 78
Tricked Truths Grace’s tiny cry of wonderment fell across his lips. His kiss was questing and gentle but hungry too as he brushed their lips together, rubbing the different textures one against the other, learning her flesh by using his own as his instrument of knowledge. She lifted her hand to the side of his head, her fingers twining through his wet hair. He tilted his head and discovered her mouth at a whole new angle. His hand mimicked hers, cradling her head, holding her steady for his increasingly ardent kiss. The small sound she made in her throat when he dipped his tongue along the seam of her mouth made his penis swell into full, aching readiness. When she opened for him, he didn’t hesitate to submerse himself in her taste. Some sort of chemical cascade occurred in his brain. With each passing second, with each new taste he experienced, with each new sensation, his arousal mounted to unforeseen heights. When he felt her tongue shyly begin to mate with his, he twisted his body and trailed his hand down her spine, letting his fingers familiarize themselves with the delicate structure and the silkiness of her skin. He fanned his fingers out over her waist, marveling at her narrowness, fascinated by the feminine swell of her hip. When she began to rub and slide and stroke him more boldly with her tongue, he growled deep in his throat and lowered her down onto the dock. “Grace,” he whispered in stunned lust as he came down over her. She watched him with unfocused, arousal-darkened eyes. Her full lips looked damp and swollen. Her breasts rose up and down rapidly beneath his chest. He pressed against her tightly and took her mouth in a ravenous kiss. She tasted delicious. He couldn’t get enough of her. The only mandate he knew for an eternal moment was to experience more until he drowned himself in the bliss of her. Grace strained restlessly against his hard, hot body…not to escape, but to get more of the sensation of him. Her breasts felt 79
Tricked Truths heavy and overly sensitive. She pressed up against his hard chest, anxious to alleviate the growing ache. The crisp, springy hairs on his chest felt good against her smooth skin, so different from her, so exotic and arousing. She groaned mindlessly when she felt him plump her left breast in his palm from the side. Before she knew what he intended he’d reached up and drew down on the tie of her bikini top. He lowered the flimsy covering over her breasts. She blinked in the bright sunlight when she noticed that he was no longer kissing her senseless. The sluggish protest that made its way from her sex-torpid brain to her tongue disappeared when she registered the expression on his handsome face as he looked down at her. The brilliance of his narrowed eyes made the summer sunlight seem like a tepid glow in comparison. “You’re so pretty,” he whispered in gruff reverence before he bent to taste her. At the first touch of his lips on her nipple, Grace cried out shakily. Her back instinctively arched into him. His kiss created a shivery, hot sensation that tingled down to her pussy, swelling and liquefying her flesh in a manner that both shocked and thrilled her. When he ran his raspy tongue over her, she whispered his name in wonder. But when he took her into his warm mouth and suckled her, she cried out in desperation. Her eyes flashed open onto the shellacked-looking cerulean blue sky. It was beautiful but strangely surreal, just like the wild, wondrous sensations coursing through her body. It suddenly crashed down on her exactly what she was doing. A look had led to a touch, a touch to a kiss, and as Grace was quickly learning, one of Trick’s kisses could lead down roads of unimagined delight…as well as previously unknown depths of regret. Was she out of her mind? How could she have allowed this to happen? “Grace…wait.” 80
Tricked Truths But she was up and moving away from the temptation of him, clumsily tying her bikini around her neck in a tight knot she’d later spend an hour trying to loosen. The water struck her with a slap of cold reality. She barely made it back to the dock because an anxiety that reached panic proportions made her breath choppy and her stroke uneven. Somewhere in the back of her befuddled awareness she sensed that he was next to her. But she didn’t know it for a fact until he grabbed her calf as she drew herself out of the water onto the dock. In the moment she paused, he hurled himself out of the lake with an effortless flex of lean muscle. He was sitting beside her while she knelt on the dock before she could smooth even the surface of her chaotic emotions. “Grace, I’m sorry,” he apologized in a rush. “I shouldn’t have come on so strong like that. It’s just that you’re so…” He paused, his mouth hanging open as he focused first on her parted lips and then what must have been the intense hunger broadcast in her own gaze. Then he was leaning in for her again, his hand cupping her head, his mouth covering hers. Grace groaned in renewed lust and rising misery into his mouth. He tasted so good. She wanted to absorb him…fuse his masculine essence with her feminine one. The need was so primitive and strong that it brought tears to her eyes. She had never really known the definition of desire until that day, and when she learned it, she mastered the truest, purest meaning of the word. “No.” The wretched whisper tore out of her throat a second after she ripped her lips from his. Trick watched, dumbfounded, as she hastily rose, slid on her sandals, and grabbed clumsily for her towel. He was momentarily at a loss of what he could say to make her stay after he’d insulted her not once now, but twice. But then she took him by surprise. 81
Tricked Truths “I’m sorry, Trick,” she whispered, avoiding his gaze before she ran off the dock. Trick couldn’t understand why the hell she was apologizing to him. Not until later that same day, that is. Not until he cancelled his date with Layla Edwards, far too restless and thoughtful to endure the exotic beauty’s clinging arms and frequent pouts. Not until his father had called him downstairs, eager to introduce him to the infamous, much-heard-of new fiancée Trick had been looking forward to meeting as much as he would getting his wisdom teeth pulled. Not until he’d walked into West End’s living room and seen Grace Jamison sitting on the sofa. Her eyes had been like the waters of a gray, still lake when she rose to meet him. He’d left Everly two days later and hadn’t crossed her path for another two years. When he had, she’d been wearing an obscuring veil as she sat with bowed head in the front pew at his father’s funeral. The sight had forever jaded him against her. Maybe it had forever jaded him, period.
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Chapter 6 “Mom, Mom, come out here and watch me on Lucky,” was the distant greeting that awaited her when Grace arrived home after school Wednesday night. She left her satchel in the van and headed down the lane toward the pasture. Randy rode on Lucky Stripe while Indigo held the horse on a lead. At a low word and a flick of the reigns, Lucky escalated the pace to a fast trot. Grace smiled and waved as Randy circled in front of her. “He’s coming along.” Grace started, realizing for the first time that Trick was there too. Her eyes found him blending into the shadows of a large maple. He pushed off the trunk casually with a booted right foot and came toward her with a loose-hipped saunter. He leaned on the fence several feet down from her. “He certainly has,” Grace agreed, sounding a little breathless. Those had been the first words she’d spoken to Trick for three days now…ever since he’d taken out his anger and lust on her the other night, ever since he’d given her more pleasure than she’d ever known. Too bad that any joy she’d taken from the experience had just been an unfortunate side effect to the circumstances, at least as far as Trick was probably concerned. “You’re home early.” She immediately wished she hadn’t said it. She didn’t want Trick to know how acutely attuned to his comings and goings from West End she was. But Trick didn’t seem to notice her embarrassment. He just nodded. 83
Tricked Truths “It’s the break in the heat. Hard to stay inside on a day like today, especially after we avoided the outdoors for weeks. Thought I’d come home and see if Randy wanted to go for a ride.” “Yeah, the kids were having a hard time paying attention in class today with the gorgeous weather outside.” Grace took a long inhale when he didn’t respond. She trained her eyes on Randy and Lucky although she remained hyperaware of Trick’s presence just feet away from her. She wanted to talk to him. She wanted to converse with him in an adult, productive manner. What happened between them needed to be brought out into the open air instead of festering inside them like poison in a wound. But she couldn’t think of how to address the volatile topic. No, she couldn’t think of how to break through Trick’s volatility, period. Yet she really needed to try. Perhaps tonight after he’d returned from his ride with Randy. Although she’d only looked at him straight on for one or two brief seconds, his image remained vivid in her mind’s eye. His dark hair had fallen onto his forehead. He wore a dark blue casual t-shirt that was coming partially untucked from a pair of low-riding, faded jeans. As far as Grace was concerned, Trick could have made a living by modeling the well-worn, rugged jeans he favored. They always seemed to cling to his lean hips, hard thighs, and tight butt in all the right places, emphasizing his effortless sex appeal. The old tension still swelled between her and Trick but she also sensed a wary truce on his part. For several minutes they watched in silence as Randy put Lucky through different paces using his voice, the reins, and thigh pressure with varying degrees of success to communicate his desires to the horse. Grace stirred slightly when Randy laughed at something Indigo said to him. “I hope he’s not on the clock right now,” she said softly. “Why? Because he’s having fun? Nothing wrong with having fun at work,” Trick muttered. “Lucky has to be exercised.” 84
Tricked Truths Grace gave him a sideways glance. “And when you two go riding together?” He shrugged. “Lucky has to be exercised,” he repeated blandly. Her low, soft laughter caused the back of his neck to tingle. Trick gritted his jaw and rubbed at the skin in an impatient gesture, irritated with his body for responding to her without his conscious permission. He’d observed her frequently over the past few days from his kitchen window. He’d watched her leave for work just this morning, so he didn’t even need the brief moment of watching her from behind just now to know how pretty she looked, how soft and fresh and feminine. The floral print skirt she wore emphasized her narrow waist and the beguiling curve of her hips. The pink, short-sleeved knit that matched the skirt didn’t cling to her full breasts indecently, but it certainly highlighted their firm shape as they thrust starkly from the plane of her chest. Trick had never had a grade school teacher anywhere near as pretty as Grace. If he had, he would never have been able to learn a damned thing. He certainly wasn’t capable of any rational thought where she was concerned as a thirtyseven-year-old man. He was glad when Randy came over to the fence with Lucky, distracting him. “Think I’m getting better?” Randy asked eagerly, first addressing his mother, then Trick. “Absolutely,” Grace said. “Big improvements,” Trick added. “You ready to go?” “Yeah. Indigo said to tell you that he was saddling up Caesar for you. Did Trick tell you we were going for a ride after my lesson?” Grace nodded. “Guess you only have to do real work at your day job, huh?” 85
Tricked Truths Randy laughed. “Trick says that—” “Lucky has to be exercised. I know,” Grace finished for him with a smile. “He does,” Trick said, slightly perplexed by Grace’s warm manner. Why wasn’t she acting pissed off at him for the way he’d treated her the other night? “Stables have to be cleaned out too, but every job has its ups and downs.” Randy glanced at his mother with a raised brow. With the intuition inherent to motherhood, Grace knew precisely what her son was thinking. “There will be ups to tutoring third graders too, Randy,” she said. “So far I’ve only had experience with the biggest down— Anderson Meeks. Who names their kid Anderson, anyway?” Randy asked in genuine puzzlement. Trick wasn’t sure what Randy and Grace were talking about but he did have the answer to Randy’s question. “Anderson Meeks, Senior. He’s the youngest vice president ever of the First National Bank of Everly, and he makes damned sure you know it every time you run into him. Takes himself pretty seriously. Hacks him off when a person calls him ‘Andy’.” Trick’s devilish grin at Randy said loud and clear who the person was who hacked off Anderson Meeks, Sr. the most. “Why are you hanging around a little kid like that?” Trick wondered. “I’m not hanging around him,” Randy said with a trace of disdain as he patted Lucky, calming the horse when he pranced restlessly. “I’m tutoring him in math—him and three other little kids in Mom’s class. I did it for the first time today. Andy Junior is definitely the worst of the bunch… Little bully…” “There’s a tutoring program at Pleasant Meadows,” Grace explained while Randy muttered under his breath. “Sixth and seventh graders who are particularly gifted in certain subjects tutor younger kids who need extra assistance. I got lucky enough to get the most 86
Tricked Truths qualified tutor in the school,” Grace explained proudly to Trick. “And I better not hear you calling Anderson Meeks Andy Junior at school, Randy Burnett,” she added with a pointed glance at her son. “You’re good at math?” Trick asked, as heedless as Randy was to Grace’s reprimand. “No. I’m great at math,” Randy answered smugly. Trick laughed at his little brother’s cockiness. “Me too. So was Evan…and Grandpa, for that matter.” “Guess the Burnett math gene was so huge it crowded out the one for modesty,” Grace muttered under her breath. She went still for a second when Trick’s piercing eyes sliced over to her. His abrupt laughter stunned and warmed her in a way nothing else could have. Randy joined him while Grace just shook her head in pretend disgust. For a brief two seconds that she questioned the reality of later on that evening, Trick regarded her with the same potent fusion of amusement and heat she poignantly recalled from so many years ago. “Speaking of names, how come you got named Trick?” Randy asked. Trick’s laughter faded, leaving just the shadow of mirth on his face. Grace saw when his eyes flickered warily away from her. She knew exactly what he was thinking in that moment. She could almost hear Evan’s sarcastic voice herself and knew for a fact that exact same recording played in Trick’s head. We called him Trick because he sure as hell was never a treat. Or maybe he wasn’t thinking that. Maybe he was thinking of the other night, when she called him by his real name as an orgasm shuddered through her body. Don’t call me that again. Ever. Despite the tension Randy’s innocent question created between Grace and Trick, he answered evenly enough. “That’s not my name. My real name is John.” 87
Tricked Truths “That’s my middle name,” Randy exclaimed in round-eyed amazement. “It was Grandpa’s name as well,” Trick said. He hit the top of the fence briskly with his fist. “I’ll go get Caesar and we’ll go for that ride, okay? I’ll tell you a little more about your namesake along the way.” “Awesome,” Randy said as he watched Trick go. “Are you and Trick getting along better now, Mom?” Randy asked hopefully after Trick had disappeared into the stable. Grace hid her sadness at the eagerness in her son’s voice. She needed to find a way to make peace with Trick for Randy’s sake. “I think he’s resigned himself to being civil, honey.” Randy’s youthful face wrinkled up in confusion. “What’s that mean?” Grace sighed and distractedly shooed a fly away from her forehead. “It means that just because a person is polite to their neighbor doesn’t mean that they don’t also wish said neighbor was long gone.” “Oh,” Randy said as understanding dawned. “Do you think Trick wants me gone, too?” Grace shielded her eyes from the sun so that she could fully meet Randy’s gaze. “Absolutely not. I think Trick considers himself to be pretty lucky right now for having such a great brother.” Randy flushed and then shrugged slightly, as if to diminish the importance of what she’d said. But Grace saw how much her statement had pleased him. **** Trick lingered in the stables after Randy headed into the Widow’s Cottage for his dinner and Indigo had called it a day. He glanced up from his task of polishing his saddle when he heard a female voice call his name. “Are you trying to avoid me, Trick Burnett?” 88
Tricked Truths “If I was, I guess I would have just failed,” he answered Layla Edwards blandly. He tossed aside the rag he’d been using to rub down the leather and lifted the saddle from the table. Layla followed him as he hung it. “Does that mean yes?” “It means that I hadn’t been aware of trying to either find you or avoid you one way or another, Layla.” His eyes caught on her and stuck when he turned around. She looked good, he had to admit. Although the amusing thought did strike him that it seemed like she’d costumed herself in attire she believed appropriate to wear on a farm. If a farm was the set in a pornographic movie anyway, he added to himself with a small smirk as he walked past her. “What’s so funny?” Layla pouted as she followed him. “That get-up you’re wearing,” Trick said honestly as he tossed the items he’d been using into a bag. In typical Layla fashion, she responded only to the masculine glimmer of appreciation in his blue eyes instead of the obvious derision in his voice. She placed both hands above her naked waist and twisted her torso in a facsimile of innocent showing off. The gesture thrust out her chest and plumped her large breasts, unfailingly highlighting them for Trick’s wary admiration. “Oh, this? This is just something I clean up the house in,” she said sultrily as her hands ran over hips. The jean shorts she was wearing were so tiny that Trick figured they could double as bikini bottoms. And the red and white checkered halter top she wore might have come straight out of Daisy Duke’s closet. “Guess your husband looks forward to cleaning day,” he muttered wryly as he began to peel off the work gloves he wore. “No, don’t,” Layla ordered huskily. Trick paused when she stepped closer and placed a hand on his forearm. She looked up at him seductively. “I like the way you look in those gloves. Your arms are so muscular,” she praised as she 89
Tricked Truths trailed her fingers up to encircle his biceps. “So powerful.” She stepped closer until her breasts bumped into his lower chest. She licked her heavily glossed lips as she watched him through eyelashes coated in three layers of mascara. “A big, strong man like you could make a girl do just about anything you wanted her to do.” “I don’t have the time or the interest to make a woman do anything,” he said flatly. Still, he didn’t move away from her as she pushed her soft breasts into his chest and ran her hands greedily over his shoulders and arms. Maybe part of him was curious how he would respond. He required relief from all the images and memories of Grace that plagued him. There was no way that she could have felt that good…tasted that good. Any attractive woman would do for easing the ache that flickered sluggishly into his cock when Layla rubbed her nipples against him. The feeling brought to mind how he’d strictly forbidden himself from stroking and sucking on Grace’s beautiful breasts the other night. He was hungry for plump, milky flesh. He wanted to fasten his mouth on a nipple and draw on that sweet button until some unknown need in him was satisfied. “I should be so mad at you for ignoring my phone calls,” Layla sulked as she massaged his nipples through his t-shirt. “Ooh, you’re all sweaty, Trick.” “I just got back from riding.” Layla paused before she lifted his t-shirt and smoothed her palm over his bare abdomen and waist. “That’s okay, honey. I’ve decided I like it,” she whispered huskily. “It’s so primitive. Makes me think you’ll take me like an animal.” Trick barely stopped himself from laughing out loud. “Cut the act, Layla. Just…just take off your top.” Her slanting green eyes flared in triumph. She untied her halter top from around her neck and lowered it. She was bare and bountiful beneath it. 90
Tricked Truths “Like what you see?” she asked when he just stared at her for several long seconds. Trick couldn’t tell her honestly without being cruel so he just reached up, gloves and all, and cupped both mounds from beneath. She had great tits and Trick knew she was proud of them. If he recalled correctly from thirteen years back, it turned her on to have her most prized asset focused on during lovemaking. He remembered sucking and fucking her breasts on several occasions until she’d worked herself into an all-out frenzy of lust. Now those were some memories worth focusing on. So why did her breasts seem too garishly big and soft in his molding palms? Why did the nearly two inches in circumference nipples that had once made his mouth water seem stretched and unappealing? They didn’t respond like Grace’s. They definitely didn’t draw into tight, sweet little buds of raw, sensitized flesh at just the brush of his fingertip...at his mere gaze. Trick frowned at the turn of his thoughts. Layla let out a dramatic shriek when he suddenly bent and lifted her, carried her across the stables and plopped her ass down on the top of an empty stall door. The maneuver put her bouncing breasts closer to Trick’s mouth. “Trick, you scared the hell out of me.” “Put them together,” was his only reply. Layla did all but say ‘yes, sir,’ quickly pressing her nipples close together and lifting her breasts eagerly to him. She watched with gleaming eyes as he leaned over and shaped his lips around the center of her right nipple, creating a precise channel of suction. She groaned loudly at the small but potent caress. He went straight to business, laving and lashing at both nipples at once, nibbling and sucking at his leisure. Layla quivered with excitement. “Ooh yeah, baby. You’re making me so wet. I’m gonna give your cock a nice slick ride.” 91
Tricked Truths Trick paused for a millisecond, recognizing the same X-rated litany from thirteen years ago. Obviously it was a line that still played successfully to a rapturous male audience. Trick glanced up into her face as he drew on a fat nipple. Her eyes were closed and her head thrashed back and forth in ecstasy. If he hadn’t grown up in Everly and borne witness to Layla’s swelling chest firsthand, he’d think she’d had a boob job. Her nipples were that unresponsive. Feeling irritated as hell with himself for starting this—and a bit guilty as well—he grabbed her hand and placed it on her crotch while he sucked a nipple more forcefully. Just as he’d guessed she would, she immediately worked her first few fingers into her tight denim shorts and started rubbing her clit excitedly. It didn’t take long before she was gushing in climax. Trick listened with satisfaction as she loudly proclaimed her pleasure, knowing his escape was within reach. When she had quieted somewhat, she reached for the fly of his jeans. He stopped her abruptly with a hand on her wrist. He was partially erect despite his lack of interest and he really didn’t want to experience her touch or to take this any further when it had already gone too far. “What’s wrong, baby? You made me feel so good. Let me do that for you,” she cooed seductively. Trick shook his head irritably as he lifted her down off the stall door. “Despite the fact that you think I smell like an animal, I’m not up for doing it like one at the moment.” “I didn’t say I didn’t like the way you smell, baby. Your sweat turns me on. You smell like a real man,” Layla murmured as she encircled his neck in her arms and pressed her bare breasts into his chest. Her slanting eyes were full of hot promise when she gazed up at him. Trick unwound her clinging arms and turned away as he peeled off his gloves. The bright September sunlight struck him like 92
Tricked Truths a slap when he stepped out of the dim stables. Christ, what was wrong with him? He’d just had a sexy, more than willing, horny as hell woman in his arms, ready to go down whatever sexual route he felt like touring and he’d turned around and walked away. He really needed to get a life. He waited for Layla to follow him so he could close up the stables. “Trick?” His gaze darted toward Grace although his body remained stationary. Her face looked anxious…uncertain. “Yeah?” he croaked. “I was wondering if you had a moment…to talk?” Grace asked quietly. Trick’s lips thinned. “It’s not really a great time…” Grace went completely still when Layla stepped out of the stables behind him. She was in the process of drawing the straps of her halter top together at her neck with one hand while the other plumped a generous breast into the scanty pocket of material. Her cheeks were flushed and her hair tousled. Trick realized with a sinking feeling that Layla was the picture of the woman who’d just had a quick, satisfying bout of lusty sex. The only thing missing was the hay in her hair. Layla stilled when she saw Grace standing there. “What are you doing here?” she asked bluntly. She glanced over to Trick and back at Grace. Understanding seemed to slide across her face. So she hadn’t known it was Grace outside of her car that first night. Now she linked Trick’s strange behavior and abrupt departure from her car—and her body—with the unexpected reappearance of Grace in Everly. “Jeez…you’re not staying here, are you?” Layla asked. “My son and I live in the Widow’s Cottage,” Grace replied, her eyes never leaving Trick’s face. “But that’s…that’s outrageous…and awful. Trick? Surely you don’t want her here, do you?” 93
Tricked Truths “That’s not something you need to concern yourself with, Layla,” he replied tersely. Layla’s disbelief quickly segued to outrage. “After what she did to your daddy? You shouldn’t have to put up with her living on West End property!” “Excuse me,” Grace said simply before she turned and walked down the drive. For a second Trick just watched her retreating back. He realized he was doing the equivalent of grounding gravel with his back teeth. “Grace, just a—” He paused when Layla went up on her tiptoes and brushed his tense jaw sympathetically. “You poor thing. I had no idea what you were going through! No wonder you’ve been so preoccupied. That bitch. How dare she persecute you like this? What’s she want, anyway?” “I have no fucking idea,” he snarled under his breath before he shook off her hold and stalked down the path that led away from both women. **** Layla nearly boiled over with fury at Trick’s callous disregard. But she conveniently transferred the blame to Grace Jamison. Trouble-making, white-trash, gold-digging little slut. Look how she’d gotten Trick all out of sorts. He was so uptight that he hadn’t even taken advantage of an opportunity for a prime tumble. Layla’s lower lip poked out as she watched him walk away. The tension she’d sensed between Trick and his father’s widow had been palpable, and Layla had been involved in too many love affairs to believe it originated solely from anger. Trick obviously lusted after Grace Jamison in addition to being infuriated by her. His avoidance of her took on a whole new meaning, one that left a bitter taste in Layla’s mouth. She’d been waiting to get Trick Burnett back in her bed for thirteen years and no smooth-talking, uppity bitch was going to stand in her way now that her goal was within her reach. 94
Tricked Truths Despite all of her self-righteous indignation for Trick’s sake she waited to assure herself that he continued in the opposite direction from Grace. She wasn’t disappointed. He flew up the stairs to the back entrance of West End, practically ripping the screen door from its hinges as he opened it. Layla thoughtfully made her way to her car, willing to accept a temporary defeat because she was almost guaranteed a final victory. Her husband Harold was out of town, and thanks to Trick’s foul mood she had the rest of the evening at her disposal. She’d spend it wisely.
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Chapter 7 Trick snapped into instant wakefulness at several popping noises followed by glass shattering. The sound of a vehicle accelerating accompanied by scattering gravel followed. He was up, hauling on a pair of jeans, and racing out his bedroom door in three seconds flat. The bright, motion-sensitive outdoor lights had kicked on but too late for Trick to make out anything but the red break lights of a pickup truck fishtailing onto the rural route, tires peeling loudly until they finally gripped the road. He saw the jagged angles of glass that remained on the large front window of the Widow’s Cottage. As he ran across the drive he observed the living room light flicking on and Randy’s stunned, sleepy face through the gaping hole. His eyes caught on the arc of crimson fluid fanning starkly across the ivory colored couch. “Are you hurt?” Trick demanded as he bounded up the steps onto the porch. “Randy, come back. Be careful,” Grace ordered firmly. “We’re okay, Trick. It’s some kind of…tomato juice or something.” He quickly located Grace through the shattered window. He hadn’t noticed her before because she’d tied a dark robe over her nightgown and stood in the shadowed entryway of the living room. “Stay away from it, both of you. There’s glass all over the floor and those sharp pieces up at the top of the window could fall any minute,” Trick warned. He waited until Grace made eye contact, assuring himself that she’d understood in the midst of her 96
Tricked Truths shock. She carefully stepped forward and put her arm around Randy’s thin shoulders in a protective gesture. “What happened?” she asked in a tremulous voice. “Some assholes threw something through the window. They’re gone. They were peeling out onto the road by the time I got out of the house. Both of you go put some shoes on while I call the police…and be careful.” By the time Grace unlocked the front door for Trick a minute later, she’d changed into a pair of denim shorts, a t-shirt and canvas sneakers. “They’re sending over a patrol car,” he muttered as he walked past Grace and peered into the living room. He’d thrown on a white shirt, but only three of the buttons were fastened. He cursed under his breath when he surveyed the damage. “Christ, what a mess.” Thousands of pieces of broken glass lay scattered all over the carpeted floor. Red, meaty liquid splashed across the coffee table, carpet, and the new-looking couch that Grace had just had delivered last weekend. Trick picked up a jagged piece of glass with a label still on it. He grunted with grim satisfaction. “Jerks bought a premium brand spaghetti sauce.” “They wanted the glass container,” Grace said in a low voice behind him. He turned. She looked pale but the tremble had left her voice. “Yeah, but a clerk is more likely to remember somebody buying half a dozen jars of this at two o’clock in the morning than they would the cheap kind in a can.” “That’s not all they threw, Trick,” Randy said. “What else?” Randy held up a brick. “There was a note attached,” he stated soberly. Trick noticed that Grace shifted uneasily on her feet. “Let me see it,” he requested in a tone that matched the boy’s. 97
Tricked Truths “It was just a bunch of kids,” Grace said when she saw Trick’s face stiffen as he peered at the note. Trick started to say something before he glanced at Randy and stopped himself. “Do either of you have any idea of who would do something like this?” Randy shook his head, a blank look on his face. Trick transferred his gaze to Grace expectantly. “Not specifically, no.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” Trick snapped. Her gray eyes shone with emotion even though her voice was calm when she spoke. “I mean that I have no specific name to give you. Half this town likely wishes I’d never come back to Everly.” Trick tensed in further anger when he heard the unspoken part of her message. Including you. “Maybe, but very few want it so much that they’d resort to making homicidal threats.” Grace sighed in exasperation. “Trick, it’s not that bad—” She stopped abruptly when he just held up the ragged piece of paper with a pointed gesture and a furious gleam in his eyes. The Everly Police Department chose that opportune moment to make a dramatic entrance onto the property, sirens blaring. Grace’s heart sank in her chest when she saw that one of the officers was Charlie Helton. The adrenaline that had surged through her blood upon awaking from the crash and finding her living room a ruined mess wore thin, leaving a feeling like a heavy weight had been suspended in her chest cavity. The thought kept repeating in her head over and over that this was all the result of her dragging Randy out of his happy, secure home. Having to deal with Charlie Helton’s Napoleon syndrome just felt like one thing too many. She was thankful that Trick was there. Charlie kept his obvious distaste for her to a minimum since Mr. Burnett appeared to be on her side, at least for the unusual circumstances of having a trespasser on West End property. When Charlie’s partner, Dale 98
Tricked Truths Givens, asked to see the message that had been attached to the brick used to crash through the window, Trick hesitated. “Haven’t you got school tomorrow?” he asked Randy who was currently sitting on the only clean chair in the living room, all the excitement drained from his handsome, youthful face, only to be replaced by an expression of gray, dull fatigue. “Yeah.” “Why don’t you take him up to one of the spare bedrooms at West End?” he said to Grace. “No, I’m sure that’s not necessary—” “It is necessary. You’ve got a hole wide enough for an army to come through your front window. I can board it up tomorrow until you get someone out here to get the pane replaced, but for now it’s not safe.” Trick became aware of the way Charlie Helton’s gaze shifted between him and Grace curiously. His frown deepened. “The only other option is a hotel. Do you want to put the kid through that when his night has already been interrupted like this?” Grace paused, irritated by his blazing eyes and bullying manner, but swayed by the inarguable logic of what he’d said. “I…no, of course not,” she managed after a few seconds. “Randy, get whatever you need and I’ll walk you up to the house.” She felt Trick’s gaze on her back like a palpable force when she led Randy out the front door of the Widow’s Cottage half a minute later. It felt bizarre to navigate her son through the simultaneously familiar and foreign atmosphere of West End. She’d lived there for such a short, charged period of her life. And here she was again, forming another charged memory. Not just for her either, she reminded herself grimly. For Randy, too. 99
Tricked Truths Despite her anxious thoughts, Randy only seemed curious and excited at the prospect of staying at West End. She glanced in warily as she’d passed Evan’s old suite and saw the covers thrown back on the bed. The room had been redecorated. Trick obviously occupied it now. She was glad to know that her reaction to seeing the room was more concern that she’d have a negative reaction than any traumatic symptoms themselves. She’d seen her former husband shot in that bedroom, after all. “Cool. I’ve got my own bathroom,” Randy enthused as he opened a door and poked his head inside the adjoining room once they’d entered the suite. “Bit of a step up from the Widow’s Cottage, huh, Mom?” Grace laughed tiredly as she reached for him to give him a hug. “Especially after tonight. You all right, Randy?” she murmured next to his head. It still amazed her that he was no longer “close” to being his mom’s height, but had surpassed it by more than three inches. Twelve years old and already pushing five foot nine inches tall. “I’m okay. Are you, Mom?” Grace smiled and brushed at her cheek quickly before she backed out of his arms. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m fine. Sometimes this stuff happens. Probably some teenagers out drinking, blowing off steam in stupid ways.” Randy grunted as he fluffed the pillows on the queen-sized bed and plopped into it with all the relish of a kid testing out an unfamiliar bed in a hotel room on a vacation. “How come teenagers always get blamed for stuff like this?” Grace blinked. “You’re right. I was being judgmental,” she admitted. “I should probably go back out in case the police want me for anything. You’re sure you’ll be okay?” She kissed him on the cheek as he nodded his head. “Mom?” “Yes?” 100
Tricked Truths “That note? That had to do with all the stuff that happened after my dad was murdered?” Randy asked in a cracking voice. Grace sighed. She’d explained to him as much as she thought he could understand about Evan’s death years ago. “Yes. I expect so. Another reminder to me of why I shouldn’t be judgmental about things I don’t understand, huh?” she said with a shaky laugh. Randy’s brow furrowed with anxiety. “I don’t like it. What if they meant what they said in that note?” “Honey, are you worried about getting hurt while you’re at the cottage?” He sat up in the bed. “No. I’m worried about you getting hurt. You’re not telling me everything about what happened when my father died, are you?” Grace paused, unsure of which statement to address first. She felt blown away by the forceful, confident character of her twelveyear-old son. It humbled her a little. It panicked her a lot. Time was running out. How much more evidence did she need? She needed to do what she’d come here to do. And she needed to do it soon before what she suspected was the truth became blatantly obvious to the rest of the world as well. The realization made her feel like she was standing at the edge of a cliff, knowing the right decision was to jump. “What I’ve told you about Evan is true, Randy. You’re also right. There’s more to the story. If any of your classmates or even an adult ever says anything to you, please come to me before making any assumptions. But in the meantime,” her eyes held a silent plea as she looked into his blue eyes, “please be patient, Randy. I’ll tell you everything as soon as I can. I promise you.” His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. “Does what you want to say…and the reason you wanted to come back to Everly have to do with Trick, Mom?” 101
Tricked Truths Grace tried to control her sharp inhalation of shock. She felt a wave of dizziness filter down through her brain like a sinking liquid that was at first cool, then hot. “Yes,” she finally said. Her surprise only amplified when Randy nodded as though fully expecting her answer. “I figured it did,” he said with a mysterious calmness before he reached for the bedside lamp. “’Night, Mom.” “Sleep well. I’ll wake you up at the normal time,” Grace managed to say after she’d forced her feet to come unstuck from their frozen position on the deep pile carpeting. For the first time she’d ever considered it in Randy’s life, the strange thought struck her that her son had favored Kenny at that moment. **** When Trick came up the stairs a minute later he found her leaning forward with one hand on the hallway wall, her neck bent, a thick curtain of dark blonde hair shielding her face, her shoulders slightly crumpled in a way that for some reason made him more anxious than the sight of the Widow’s Cottage’s shattered window. She blinked in disorientation and straightened at his touch on her shoulder. Dazed puzzlement shadowed her features when he cursed. He caught her dead weight in his arms. “I never should have brought him here,” Trick heard her whisper roughly against his chest. The pallor of her skin seemed as frightening to him as if she’d suddenly exposed an open wound. Even her lips were white around the edges. “It was just a couple of idiots. There’s no planning for something like that,” he muttered as he kicked open the door to the bedroom across from his own and threaded Grace through the opening. He wanted to say something else to reassure her but he didn’t know what. In fact, he’d been alarmed by the viciousness of the threat tied to the rock.
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Tricked Truths The next time it’ll be bullets through your front window. Go back to wherever you came from. No one wants you in Everly, bitch! “When I told Charlie and Dale that it was a pickup I saw pulling out of the drive, they seemed to think they had a good idea who might have been behind this,” Trick said huskily. He’d sensed intuitively that the policemen were right when they’d revealed those names to him. He held her body against him tightly for a few seconds while he whipped back the covers. Grace seemed to come to full awareness when she felt him untying a sneaker and slipping it over her heel. “It’s okay, Trick,” she muttered as she sat up. “I’ve got it. I just felt a little dizzy for a second…” Trick didn’t respond except by shooing away her interfering hand and untying her other shoe. He felt her go completely still when he encircled her ankle and pushed the sneaker off. They both watched as it bounced on the floor. The tension that always existed between them suddenly swelled and amplified. His palm slid of its own accord along her silky skin to her calf. He squeezed the muscle slowly, rhythmically, then looked at her face to gauge her reaction. She stared at her flesh in his hand like it was the most fascinating thing she’d ever seen. Her gaze rose sluggishly to his, her eyes enormous in her pale face. His heart hammered in his chest when she raised her hand slowly, as though she meant to caress his face. He stopped her. “Go to sleep, Grace. You look tired,” he ordered gruffly. Her hand froze in midair, before dropping helplessly back to her lap. He wouldn’t have been able to resist her if she’d touched him at that moment. She looked so vulnerable, so beautiful…so ripped wide open. He would have her again tonight and hopefully learn a 103
Tricked Truths few of her secrets in the process. But he could wait a few hours while she rested and built up her defenses once again. He refused to allow himself to examine why he made her feelings a priority. Instead, he lay back on the bed and pulled Grace into his arms. **** Grace turned her cheek and nuzzled his chest. She inhaled deeply and exhaled on a sigh. Trick sensed the moment when she became aware of her surroundings…when she became aware of him. She went unnaturally still in his arms, whereas for the last two hours while she’d slept, her body had molded to his. She was lying face down partially on top of him, her cheek on his shoulder. He’d memorized the sensation of every curve and plane. The floral, fresh smell of her hair had filtered down into his blood, making it run so hot and thick that he could clearly feel his pulse thrumming in his cock. The shape and texture of her breasts pressing against his chest had scorched his very consciousness. Once he realized that she was awake he never hesitated. He looked into her gray eyes in the brief second before he turned her on her back and came down over her, covering her mouth with his own. She may have been slightly startled, but he’d read willingness in their depths…and a growing excitement. They came together feverishly, bodies straining against each other to ease the friction that had already built as if they’d been engaging in foreplay for hours. Grace blinked heavily as she watched him a minute later while he tore his mouth from hers and determinedly turned his attention to unfastening her shorts. “Trick…that woman…Layla Edwards…” His eyes flashed up to hers even as he tore open the final button. “What about her?” “Do you have a…relationship with her?” 104
Tricked Truths He only paused for a second before he began to work the shorts over her hips. It wasn’t lost to him that she lifted her ass off the bed in order to assist him. “No,” he answered. “Why are we doing this?” she asked huskily. “Why do you think? Good old-fashioned lust.” He brushed her hand aside and eased her shorts over her smooth thighs. His mouth drew into a grim line when he dragged her panties down a moment later and he was staring at the tender, flushed folds of her outer sex. He tossed away the clothing as though he was personally affronted at the garments for covering her glory from him while he suffered for the past several hours. His gaze leapt to hers in an unspoken challenge. “Is there a better reason, Grace?” She just stared at him, her eyes appearing huge in her face. “It’s enough of one, I guess,” she whispered. Her fingers twined in his dark hair when he bent and raised goose bumps along her skin by running a series of kisses, licks and hungry nuzzles along her belly and hip. By the time he’d finished doing the same to her thighs, Grace was biting her lower lip to prevent moaning out loud in anticipation. He felt so hot against her skin. She held her breath when he skimmed his warm tongue along her inner thigh just a scarce inch away from her pussy. He must have found a taste he liked there because he growled low in this throat as his teasing tongue dipped deeper between her legs. Her hips lifted to meet him at the same time the low moan she’d stifled in her throat broke free to the air. But instead of giving her the relieving caress that she desired, he placed a big hand on her right hip. “Turn over,” he demanded tersely. He stood by the bed and quickly removed his clothing.
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Tricked Truths Grace obeyed him, eager for him to get back to what he’d been doing. She had quickly gone from an ache to a throb of need that verged on pain. Trick knelt beside her and stared intently at the glorious new landscape before him. She suited his taste perfectly. Despite her narrow waist and long, coltish legs, her ass was round and plump. He didn’t bother to tell her what he wanted this time, but merely lifted her hips and folded her knees under her. Only when her rear end was up in the air for him did he place his hands, one on each buttock, and separate her flesh for his gaze. She went still beneath him. Then he felt the fine tremor in her flesh as he leaned closer. “Trick,” she murmured. “Shhh.” He placed his forefingers on either side of the narrow opening of her pussy and curled his tongue into her. He tongue fucked her languorously, steeping himself in her juices. She began to move against him in a desperate counter rhythm, her hips demanding that he increase his tempo. But he gripped her ass and kept her immobile, determined to take this elusive, captivating woman at his own pace. Again and again he plunged into her, only to pause occasionally to suckle her honey and send his tongue between her cleft to tease her swollen clit. He could tell by the increasing pressure of her hips on his hands and her low, ecstatic moans that if she had it her way she would push her clit against his tongue. And Trick wanted that, too. He wanted to feel her lose control and convulse in his arms. But he wanted to relish in the anticipation of it just a tad bit more. He leaned back and inspected the results of his work. Blood pounded into his cock at the sight of her exposed pussy, dark pink and glossy with their combined juices. She looked as delicious as she’d tasted. 106
Tricked Truths Grace moaned and tried to sit up but he placed a hand on her lower back, immobilizing her. “Hold still,” he murmured as he rose to his knees behind her. He inserted his forefinger into her pussy. A guttural sound rumbled in his throat at the sensation of her, creamy, muscular and hot. He watched as he slid in and out of her, mesmerized by the sight of her damp channel clinging so tightly even to that relatively narrow missile. Grace groaned helplessly. His finger inside her felt wonderful, but his manner…his focused deliberation as he stroked her while he watched was making her half wild. She bit her lower lip to restrain a cry when his movements inside her began to make a wet sucking noise they both could hear. She instinctively bucked against him, desperate for more force…more friction. Her pace increased when he whisked a finger against her hungry clit, making the slow burn amplify to a hot flame. A low groan of misery left her lips when he stopped her bobbing bottom with his hand, holding her steady. “Please.” “You never answered me the other day. Why did you do it? Why did you marry my father?” He listened to her moan in misery as he slid his finger in and out of her slit at an increased rate and pressure. “If you tell me, I’ll put another finger in you,” he promised. His cock bounced in the air, brushing the satiny soft skin of her ass, wanting to be her reward for being honest with him instead of his finger. She moaned in agony. “Tell me, Grace. If you don’t, I’m going to make you kneel there while I bring myself off on your ass.” “Kenny. I did it for Kenny,” she whispered shakily. Her clit burned with the need for release but that wasn’t what had made her speak the truth. She didn’t think she could bear it if he withheld himself from her again like he had when he’d come on her breasts the other night. “Evan gave you money for—” 107
Tricked Truths “Yes. For Kenny. We were poor, Trick. White trash…isn’t that what you called us?” Trick tensed for a moment. Then he corkscrewed his finger in and out of her pussy again until she cried out in sexual agony. But still, a ruthless splinter festered in his spirit. “And why did you let that happen out by the lake so long ago? Grace?” he asked sharply when she didn’t respond and he sensed that she wavered on the edge of climax. He withdrew his finger from her clasping channel and pushed back a plump ass cheek. He gritted his teeth in sexual restraint when he pressed the welllubricated finger into her tiny asshole. When she squirmed and resisted he popped her ass with his free hand and then gripped a firm buttock, holding her steady for his invasion. Grace moaned shakily. She’d never been touched there by a man but Trick forced her to accept his intimate caress. And she didn’t want him to stop. She felt both ashamed and unbearably aroused as he began to finger-fuck her ass steadily. Her clit began to burn in sympathy with the anal stimulation. She felt him lean down close to her. “If you don’t answer right this second, Grace, you’re going to get a cock where that finger is,” Trick promised. He felt a dark, desperate need to trick the truth out of her at any cost, even if it meant stooping to sexual blackmail. “You don’t know?” Grace asked. “No, so tell me,” he insisted as he spanked her ass again with his palm. “Because I wanted to,” she whispered miserably as she pressed her flushed cheek against the bedspread. “Because I wanted you so much I didn’t consider anything else. Not even Kenny.” Trick was so aroused at that point that her words soaked into his awareness like a trickle of water through thick cotton. His eyes flickered as he considered transferring his gaze to her face to gauge her degree of honesty but he couldn’t pull his eyes from the sight of 108
Tricked Truths his finger burrowing into her ass. Maybe it was his overactive imagination when it came to Grace, but it felt like her asshole was tugging on him…tractoring him deeper. His cock leapt eagerly. Christ, talk about the most concise definition of torture. He palmed her left ass cheek and lifted, pulling her wide for his gaze. His hand lingered for a moment massaging her, enjoying the feel of her silky, firm flesh before he dropped it to the delicate folds of her outer sex. He separated her. Trick wasn’t unsympathetic to the increasingly wild, albeit muffled quality of her moans as she pressed her mouth to the pillow. He was just so caught up in the sight and sensations of her clasping asshole, luscious pussy and red, erect clit that he couldn’t focus his fixed attention on much else. But then the shaky, desperate quality of her nonverbal plea reached him. He continued to ass fuck her with his finger as he spread her sex lips wide and bent down to her. His tongue whipped her suspended clit with hard sweeps. When he heard her muffled scream into the pillow and felt her body weight drop forward, he held her next to his mouth with tensed biceps until she’d accepted every last shiver of pleasure he chose to give her. Grace could barely register what she was seeing a moment later when Trick came down next to her on the bed. Pleasure still vibrated every nerve ending of her body like lightning lingering in the sky even after a powerful storm had passed. She gave a dim cry of surprise when she felt him turning her and then tugging her tshirt over her head. The next thing she knew she was naked and flat on her back and Trick was straddling her hips. The abating storm in her body gave a mighty rallying peel of thunder when she realized he was nude. She stared. Such a sight wasn’t one a woman encountered every day. And any woman who did would be blessed beyond imagination. His shoulder, chest and arm muscles were as rounded and bulging as his abdomen was flat. His skin was a nutty, toasty 109
Tricked Truths brown. Just as she’d suspected, there wasn’t a tan line in evidence everywhere. She knew the dark hair that sprinkled his chest and stony thighs would erotically abrade her tender skin if he pressed against her…if he moved against her… As if he were reading her thoughts, he covered her lower body with his own. His blue eyes seemed to glow from fires lit within as he pinned her with his stare. Grace made a trapped sound of wild desire when she felt the solid column of his penis press and slide against her pussy and belly, the thick ridge beneath the plum-sized head erotically abrading her sensitive tissues. Her pussy seemed to flex inward in raw, painful anticipation. “You want it, don’t you, Grace?” Trick breathed out softly. She instinctively arched up, craving his hardness against her softness. “Yes.” For a few seconds he hesitated. He’d been saying it to taunt her. But the sincerity of her one-word reply, the almost shocking need implied in it, shattered his bravado. Never mind that his defenses against her to begin with were about as strong and flexible as an egg shell. Trick couldn’t understand how that shameful knowledge didn’t diminish his desire for her but only fueled it until it seemingly boiled and swelled in his veins. His eyes lowered down over her nude torso, lingering on her breasts. They rose like two fleshy triangles from the plane of her chest, amazingly firm and yet erotically full at the same time. The crests were pulled into tight, hard buds. Maybe it was the fact that she was so responsive even though he’d previously refused to touch her nipples that sent him over the edge. Nobody could fake naked desire so damn perfectly. With a low growl, he lowered his head, giving into his hunger. Defeat had never tasted so wonderful. He paid gentle homage to the thin white scar first before he lifted his mouth to her nipple. He rolled the erect bud between his 110
Tricked Truths lips, testing out the textures and taste of her. But when he registered her sweetness, he drew on her hungrily. Grace gasped at the erotic tug, arching up into him. She became lost in the swamping pleasure as he massaged her right breast surely with one hand and with the other cupped her left breast up in an offering to his suckling mouth. It felt like he possessed not two hands, ten fingers, and one mouth, but instead, hundreds of pleasure-giving instruments, sucking and flicking, plumping and caressing. He feasted on her with a voracious, yet focused intent, treating one swollen nipple to his hot mouth and lashing tongue, then the other, and then back again. Grace had never felt so empty inside. When he pulled on her nipple, it seemed to create a subsequent vacuum in her womb, making her pussy ache to be filled. A distant whisper warned her to stop him, to protect that vulnerable core of herself, but the insubstantial sound was drowned out by the roar of her need. She heard her own cries as though from a distance and vaguely recalled her son in the room down the hallway. She turned her mouth into the pillow to muffle her immense desire. He could have fed from her forever and still been hungry for more. It felt good and natural when he felt her hands on his hips, guiding him to the moist, warm gate of her pussy. The head of his cock, blunt and hard, bumped erotically against her oiled, tender lips. The thought of the velvety petals slowly parting for his shaft like a blooming, fleshy rose made him groan in the pain of stark need. He positioned himself instinctively. God, he’d been right not to touch her beautiful breasts before. They’d made him lose sight of everything....including the fact that his father had been a regular supplicant at this same altar. Grace unburied her face from the pillow when his exquisite torture ceased abruptly. She looked up dazedly to see him staring 111
Tricked Truths down at her, his facial muscles tight with lust and splintering control. Her hands still splayed across muscular buttocks. She gasped when he moved, always surprised to witness the fluid grace that stood in such marked contrast to his size. Before she could have uttered a syllable he’d rolled her on top of him and his hands were on her hips and ass, urging her to turn. Her long hair brushed against his thighs as she leaned down over him. The powerful, long muscles of his thighs were hard with the same blood and tension that fed his passion. His cock looked smooth where it rested on his belly heavily, the skin drawn tightly to its limit. His scrotum was stretched, too, full and potentlooking. Despite his distrust of her, his desire couldn’t be disguised. Grace had never seen a more erotic sight in her life. She lowered to him without his urging, recognizing his confusion, knowing his need because it matched her own. Trick didn’t breathe for a full ten seconds. He just stared up at the ceiling blindly as Grace vacuumed him into her warm, wet mouth and her tongue flickered over him like a fast flame. He’d never known a woman to be so eager, so giving, so single-minded in her intent. Always before he’d remotely sensed that his lovers were giving him oral sex to please him. But Grace’s steady, slurping suck and darting, curious tongue made him seriously question if she wasn’t taking as much joy in the act as he was. Or nearly as much, anyway. There was no way she could be experiencing the brutal pleasure her milking mouth brought him. He wanted her to share this delirium. He wanted to know that at the moment of climax, no one and nothing existed in Grace’s awareness but him. Grace’s rhythmic sucking on Trick’s cock faltered when she felt him grasp her hips and force her pussy down to his mouth. She moaned along his shaft, vibrating into the steely column of flesh. He growled, low and feral, against her pussy in turn. 112
Tricked Truths His tongue was bold, hard…ruthless. She couldn’t escape him, although for a few brief, panicked seconds, she tried. But he held her against him without mercy. When she squirmed he penetrated her ass with his thumb while he continued to flay her with his tongue. In the end, she submitted to his demands for complete surrender. Pleasure splintered through her shuddering flesh. The taste of Trick’s cum as it spurted onto her tongue and down her throat melded with her orgasm. She came back to reality pressed against the hard muscle of his thigh. The hair on his leg felt crinkly against her cheek. Short, uneven pants of air flew past her lips. Grace became aware of his perspiration damp chest rising and falling erratically beneath her thighs. The sensation felt wonderful, soothing in her ragged, turned-inside-out state. The realization struck her that her asshole still clenched around his thumb and that her thighs were spread open, her cunt glazed by the mixture of his saliva and the juices of her desire…spread wide all the way to her soul… Trick grunted in dazed dissatisfaction when he felt her move. It felt good to lay there, all troublesome thoughts temporarily scoured out of him by the explosion of his orgasm, his hand cradling her smooth, round buttock, the vapor of her breath creating a warm, haloed point of focus on his thigh. He wasn’t ready to face the unsettlingly impact of her gray eyes. She didn’t resist when he reached for her shoulders and pulled her down next to him. His fingers found their way through her thick hair and his palm curved around the back of her head. “Trick…” he heard her whisper into his chest. He tensed, certain she was going to question him about what had just occurred between them. He didn’t have any answers to give her. “….you don’t know anything about what happened tonight at the Widow’s Cottage, do you?” 113
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Chapter 8 “Heard you had some trouble out at West End last night.” Trick grimaced into his tilted coffee cup before he set it down on his desk. Buck Flynn was a good friend in addition to being the first shift foreman at Midwestern Biofuel. Buck had talked him into joining him as a volunteer for the Everly Fire Department although Trick kept insisting that his services were only temporary, because he wasn’t planning on staying in Everly for long. They’d played football together in high school and chased after the same girls. Trick figured Buck was a damned lucky man for finally having caught Judy Heckerman. Buck joked regularly about the tortures of being the father of a rowdy fifteen-year-old boy and three giggling little girls who were at times utterly foreign to him in their sheer femininity, but Trick knew for fact that his friend wouldn’t have changed a thing about his life for a sultan’s ransom. He envied Buck for his happy, uncomplicated existence even more than usual this morning. “Couple jerks vandalized the Widow’s Cottage,” Trick replied. His voice was hoarse from lack of sleep. Thinking of the reason he’d never found rest again last night etched the frown lines deeper into his forehead. Buck grunted in sympathy as he lowered his considerable bulk onto the chair in front of Trick’s desk. That was another reason Trick envied his friend—Judy was one hell of a good cook. “Why didn’t you tell me that your dad’s widow and kid were staying at West End?” Buck asked. 114
Tricked Truths “They’re not really staying at West End. As I’ve heard annoyingly often from Doug Grayson and the widow herself, the Widow’s Cottage isn’t part of my property. Evan left it to her.” Buck studied Trick’s face, knowing from experience that his cold expression hid a multitude of emotions that were likely anything but bland. “You must be royally pissed off.” “It’s damned unsettling,” he said after a pause. Something in the tone of his friend’s voice made Buck’s forehead bunch in puzzlement. “Why’d she come back to Everly?” Trick moved restlessly in his chair before he abruptly stood. He crossed the room in three long strides and shut the door to his office with a strident bang. “When are you going to take over managing Midwestern?” Trick demanded as he returned to his chair. “I’ll take over when I’ve learned the operation inside and out as well as you do. That was always the agreement. Don’t tell me you’re itching to leave Everly again already,” Buck said. Trick plopped heavily into his chair, making the springs squeak in protest. “I got another offer from Sunco to try and duplicate what I did at Midwestern in Minnesota. They’re making it damned hard for me to refuse, Buck.” He restlessly rearranged some files on his desk. “You know it was never my plan to manage this company on a long-term basis. I’m not a pencil pusher. I just wanted the challenge of starting it and seeing it succeed.” “Well, you’ve seen to that, in spades. But don’t try and change the subject. Why do you think Grace Burnett returned to Everly?” Trick suddenly froze him with an icy stare. “Grace Jamison,” Trick corrected. For a moment, neither men spoke, but Buck’s mouth fell open slightly in surprise. So…that was the way of things. Maybe he shouldn’t have been shocked, but Buck was nevertheless. 115
Tricked Truths He’d never seen Evan Burnett’s widow—Evan had always kept his young bride under very close wraps. Perhaps he wasn’t as confident in his ability to hold an eighteen-year-old, nubile beauty as he was in his abilities to lord it over the rest of the residents of Trenton County. History had certainly proved him correct in his insecurities. But the lucky few who had laid eyes on Grace Jamison during her brief marriage to Evan could testify that the shy-seeming, gawky hometown girl had blossomed into an uncommonly beautiful woman. Trick had never made a secret of his lusty nature. Still, he’d never struck Buck as a man who was ruled by his dick. Buck just couldn’t imagine Trick slavering after the woman who had played such an incriminating role in his father’s murder. “All right,” Buck eventually conceded. “Grace Jamison, then. Why’d she come back to Everly?” Trick rolled his jaw slightly, relieving the tension that had built there. “She got a job teaching third grade at Pleasant Meadows.” “That’s not an answer.” “It’s the only one I’ve got.” “You think she’s up to something, don’t you?” Buck continued, undeterred by a glare that would have made most men wish they were anywhere in the world but in the same room with Trick. Trick swallowed bitterly. Yeah, he thought Grace was up to something all right. He was probably playing right into her underhanded plans by growing erect at the mere thought of her, never mind how his body betrayed him whenever he inhaled her scent…whenever he touched her smooth skin. Maybe it had been her admission of why she’d married his father that had made him let his guard down last night. He stubbornly had refused to ask her more about it, perhaps afraid that he’d be 116
Tricked Truths drawn further in by the vulnerability she’d shown him in those brief moments. Or maybe the unappealing fact was that his ego had been stroked by an expert when she told him how much she’d wanted him that day so long ago by the lake. Chances were she’d fed Len Mallet and his like similar lines. The fact that she’d sold her body to his father in order to save her sick brother shouldn’t change his opinion of her one iota. He’d always known there had been some sordid, underhanded reason for the unlikely union and the fact that the reason involved the exchange of money for the sexual rights to Grace’s body didn’t surprise him a bit. But therein lay the problem—her admission had altered his opinion of her in some elemental way. He hadn’t just expended his lust last night. He’d made love to his father’s widow. And he’d be a damned liar if he said he didn’t want to do it again this very second, despite the fact that he didn’t trust Grace Jamison any further than he could throw his horse. That she trusted him nearly as much rankled like nothing else ever had. You don’t know anything about what happened tonight at the Widow’s Cottage, do you? At least she hadn’t had the nerve to meet his eyes when she’d asked him that question. His resulting fury likely hadn’t been easy to witness. It still roiled in his stomach. Had she actually believed that he would encourage—or hire—those idiots to try and scare her off his property? God, the mere thought almost made him jump out of his chair. He hadn’t been able to sit still all morning. The need for action rankled at him until he felt like his skeleton was going to run off without his stationary skin. Unfortunately, he couldn’t settle on just what it was he needed to do. 117
Tricked Truths He’d none too subtly threatened Doug Grayson innumerable times since he’d overheard him and Grace talking last week, but Doug kept falling back on the lame excuse of a client’s right to confidentiality. Grace would likely crack before his father’s old friend ever did, especially if she continued to respond to him as generously as she had last night in bed. He’d trick the truth out of her if it was the last thing he did. He just needed to make sure he didn’t get caught up in the nets of his own sensual trap in the process. “She’s up to something, all right,” Trick muttered through thinned lips. “Looks like you’ve got your work cut out for you, pal.” Trick just grunted. “Are you going to make the game Friday night? Buddy is starting varsity for the first time. He’s pretty nervous, only being a sophomore and all,” Buck said as he stood. Trick grinned despite his foul mood. “Hopefully he didn’t inherit your butter fingers.” “These agile fingers led us to the state championship our junior and senior years…with a little help from the rest of the team, of course,” Buck added magnanimously. Trick laughed. “Tell Buddy I wouldn’t miss it.” “Good. He’ll be glad to hear it,” Buck said as he headed toward the door. He paused with the doorknob in his hand and peered back over his shoulder. “You know what they say—keep your friends close…” “…But your enemies closer,” Trick finished wryly. Maybe Buck was right. Keeping close tabs on Grace had the added advantage of making sure she remained safe from the jackasses who had penned that note before they attached it to a brick and smashed it into the Widow’s Cottage. He flinched with anger every time he thought of the harm those hurling missiles or that jagged glass might have caused Randy or Grace. 118
Tricked Truths “Something tells me following that advice won’t be as tortuous for you as you’re leading me to believe,” Buck said with a pointed glance. He slammed the door shut behind him before Trick said anything that would match the furious gleam in his eyes. **** “…she likes it okay, I guess,” Grace heard Randy say when she pushed open the screen door with her hip later that evening. She carried a tray with a pitcher of lemonade and glasses. Getting refreshments seemed like a good way to hide her confusion when Trick appeared on her doorstep late this afternoon to board up the front window, acting like nothing unusual had happened between them last night. Randy handed Trick the final nail, which Trick promptly hammered into the wood sheet that now covered the front window. “She used to watch Notre Dame and the Colts games sometimes with Kenny and me.” Randy glanced over when he heard the screen door slam behind Grace. “You like football, right, Mom?” “Sure I do.” “Good,” Trick said matter-of-factly. Grace watched in growing unrest as he wiped his dusty hands on his jeans before he lowered himself from the small stepladder. Had she really laid her head next to those long, hard thighs last night and panted for the infinitesimally tiny amount of air left in the room that hadn’t been consumed by the powerful explosion of their combined orgasm? Trick’s practical errand, his casual banter with Randy and the golden, late summer sunlight made the whole erotic interlude seem like a dream. “My good friend Buck has a son who’s starting at quarterback for the Warriors this Friday. How about going with me to watch?” Grace froze in the act of tipping the pitcher. Her gaze zoomed over to him uncertainly. “Randy is coming, too.” 119
Tricked Truths “Oh,” Grace mumbled. A large ice cube plopped out of the tilted pitcher, causing the lemonade to splatter her sundress and overflow the glass, increasing her sense of befuddlement. “Here. Let me get that,” Trick said as he stepped forward and took the pitcher from her stiff hand. “So do you want to go?” he asked as he handed Randy the brimming glass and poured another. “Um… I…don’t…think…that…” She paused in the midst of her verbal stumbling when she noticed Randy’s eager expression. How could she answer the way she wanted to in front of him? What could Trick be thinking, asking his father’s infamous widow to accompany him to the very public venue of a small town high school football game? The gossips would be whipped into a frenzy. And surely he knew he was making it impossible for her to respond with any degree of honesty when Randy was right there. “Come on, Mom. It’ll be awesome.” Grace noticed the spark of amusement in Trick’s blue eyes before he ducked his head evasively and poured the last lemonade. “Okay. It sounds like fun,” she answered uncertainly. Later that night after Randy had gone to bed, Grace sat out on the front porch staring at stars that looked like tiny gleaming holes punched into dense black velvet. She wasn’t entirely surprised when she heard the back door of West End open and shut quietly, but she wouldn’t have been shocked if he hadn’t come either. She didn’t turn when his tall shadow settled next to her where she sat on the front steps. She didn’t need to see him to fully sense his presence in every cell of her being. “You knew that I would have to say ‘yes’ about going to the football game with Randy standing there,” she said softly. Trick grinned at her unconventional greeting. “I think I deserve a little credit for reading you correctly for once.” “Do you like him, Trick?” “Do I like who?” Trick asked, confused. “Randy.” 120
Tricked Truths He leaned back on the step, considering her question as he joined her in looking at the star-filled sky. “Yeah, I do. He’s a great kid.” “Yeah. He is.” “He misses your mother and Kenny a lot.” “Does he talk to you about them?” Grace asked in surprise. “The little that he does makes it obvious.” Grace shivered slightly at the impact of his low, rumbling voice in the darkness. “I’m sorry about last night, Trick.” The silence swelled between them for several long seconds, taking on a prickly, potent quality. “Which part?” he asked. Grace’s head swung around sharply. “What I said…at the…the end.” Her reference to their parting made them both think of the event itself. The memory hung between them. “I meant it in a general sense. I didn’t mean to accuse you of being in any way responsible for the vandalism. I know that you would never allow Randy to be hurt,” she explained, anxious to correct the misunderstanding. “Are you sure you didn’t mean more by it, Grace? I’ve made it clear from the beginning that I didn’t want you here,” he said quietly. She blinked hard to push back tears and returned her gaze to the night sky. Why did it hurt so much more to hear what she already knew to be true spoken out loud? “It just struck me that you would be in more of a position to hypothesize on the identity of the vandals than me. That’s all.” Trick inhaled slowly. He’d be lying if what she was suggesting hadn’t occurred to him as well as his temper cooled by degrees throughout the day. It was one of the reasons he’d asked her and Randy to the football game. Chances were that whoever had tossed 121
Tricked Truths that brick would be at the popular small-town event. Seeing Grace and Randy with him there might go a long way in convincing the perpetrators that he didn’t wish Grace any ill will. “A lot of young guys who live around here look up to me for starting Midwestern,” he admitted after a pause. “One of them might have made some crazy assumptions about what I would want in this situation.” “Midwestern has been a blessing for this area,” she said. “Your company has created more jobs for Trenton County than any business in Indiana in the past year. And from what I hear, you have new contracts pouring in all the time.” Trick’s eyes flickered over to her face. He could just make out the clean, delicate line of her profile in the starlight. “You’ve been doing your homework.” “I didn’t come to Everly to blackmail you for money, Trick. That would be a stupid plan, not to mention something I would never even consider. I know it wouldn’t work. I know what you think of me.” Trick resisted an urge to ask her to tell him, since he wasn’t so damned sure himself what he thought of her. He felt her start when he touched her but he didn’t remove his hand from her shoulder. Instead, he applied a slight pressure until she turned to face him more fully. “Then why don’t you tell me the reason you did come here.” “I…can’t.” His fingertips sank more firmly into her flesh. “You can’t or you won’t?” He felt vaguely alarmed when he felt her begin to tremble beneath his palm, but his irritation outweighed his worry. “What difference does it make?” Grace answered. She rose and started up the steps but Trick was up and grabbing her arm just as quickly. He stood two steps down from her. When he brought her against him their lips brushed against the other’s ear. 122
Tricked Truths “Let’s go inside, then,” he said gruffly, causing goose bumps to rise on her neck. “You’ll be honest with me there.” Grace would have refused him immediately if he’d said it with any degree of cruelty, or even sarcasm. But he hadn’t. Instead, he’d sounded exasperated but sincere. “I can’t keep doing this,” she whispered desperately, but her hand rose to his shoulder, smoothing his shirt as if she were attempting to calm her chaotic emotions with the soothing gesture. Her eyes clenched together tightly when she felt him cradle her head in his palm. “Why not? Don’t tell me that sex this good is so run of the mill for you that you can pass it up with a shrug,” he breathed out next to her ear. His hand spread across her bare neck and partially exposed shoulder, letting her know that she couldn’t deny the effect he had on her because he could feel the truth shivering through her flesh. “It’s not that. It’s not right and you know it. What about Randy?” she asked into his whiskered jaw. He turned his head slightly so that their mouths were less than an inch apart. She felt the warm mist of his breath on her lips and inhaled his scent. It fired her blood. She knew then and there that she’d lost whatever feeble struggle she’d attempted. “This is between you and me. Randy isn’t ever going to know.” Grace flinched slightly under the cloak of darkness at his words. He meant that Randy was never going to know about their illicit encounters because soon—maybe even tonight—Trick’s lust for her would be expended…dried up. Nothing would remain but the bitter dregs of his contempt. The unfairness, the hopelessness of it all pained her like a physical wound. Even so, every vein and artery in her body seemed to expand at Trick’s nearness. Desire flooded her flesh, heating and liquefying her entire body. 123
Tricked Truths He kissed her temple. Her eyelids fluttered closed when he settled on her lips. “You don’t…even like…me, Trick,” she whispered between the kisses he plucked on her lips. “I like you,” he growled softly before he bent his head to her again, this time to sample her smooth cheek and then an eyelid that compliantly shut just an instant before his lips were there. “I like the way you feel and the way you taste.” He moved his mouth to her brow. “I like that muffled sound you make in your throat when you’re trying to stop yourself from screaming when you come.” His breath felt hot against the side of her neck. “If I liked the way you gave head any better I’d become a complete addict.” He pressed his thumb to her full lower lip and touched the tip to her tongue. “Who needs food and sleep when your mouth exists, Grace?” “Trick…” she whispered desperately, but then his mouth was on hers, no longer teasing, but insistent and demanding. “I’d be happy to carry you to the bedroom,” he whispered roughly awhile later when they came up for air. “But I’d like it better if you led me there yourself.” “Because you like to see me humiliate myself for you?” she asked in a choking voice. “No. Because I like to see you give in to what’s between us, Grace.” She silently led him down the hallway to her bedroom. He dropped her hand to switch on the overhead light, softly illuminating the room. She read the request in his rigid expression and began to undress the second after he’d locked the door. His glittering eyes never lowered until she straightened from removing her panties. His nostrils flared when he finally dropped his gaze. Then he took a reflexive step back, like a wild animal about to pounce who suddenly encountered the whip. 124
Tricked Truths Something seemed to collapse in Grace when she saw the subtle jerking motion that conveyed so much about his conflicted feelings toward her. Trick wished he hadn’t seen the damp tracks of tears on her cheek before she reached around his neck and pulled him down to her. The pointed tips of her bare breasts ghosted against the fabric of his shirt and then pressed tightly between his ribs. The shirt he wore was thin, but it was still an unwelcome barrier to feeling her soft skin skimming against his own. He focused on that, unbuttoning it rapidly, instead of thinking about the slight dampness soaking through his shirt as she pressed quick, feverish kisses on exposed skin. He spread his hands on her lower back and brought her flush against his bare torso. The resulting inferno made it much easier for him to forget Grace’s tears. “Come here,” he whispered harshly before he lowered his hands to cup her ass and lifted her. The manner in which he kissed her was maddened but she responded in kind. Her legs fastened around his waist, squeezing him in a satisfyingly tight, muscular embrace. His hands flexed into her buttocks greedily as he fed from her mouth like a starving man. Lust dulled rational thought to a blurry haze. Only the sensations of the woman he held in his arms were hyperreal and pinpoint sharp in his awareness—the firm, curving flesh filling his palms, the feel of her velvety-soft, moist labia making tiny undulations against his belly…her sweet, singular taste. He wasn’t going to be able to resist her again. Not tonight. A feral snarl twisted his lips when he recognized that Grace was pushing back on his shoulders and refusing him full access to her mouth. “What?” he asked tensely. 125
Tricked Truths “Put me down,” Grace answered tremulously. “Randy is calling me.” For a second or two he just stared, not comprehending. “He has nightmares sometimes.” Her words finally soaked through the thick haze of his lust. At first he just watched her while she whisked her sundress over her head. Grace’s head jerked up when she saw him abruptly reach for his shirt. “Don’t let him see you, Trick,” she said shakily. He met her gaze. Her gray eyes shimmered with unshed tears. “This is exactly why we shouldn’t have been doing what we were doing,” Grace hissed in an emotion-filled whisper before she flung open her bedroom door and closed it behind her with a click of finality. Randy was sitting up in bed when she entered his bedroom. The bedside lamp cast enough light on him to show Grace that he looked more dazed than terrified. One of the ear buds from his iPod hung askew from his ear and his sheets looked liked he’d just staged a wrestling match in them. “What is it?” Grace asked with concern as she closed his door and went to this bedside. When he didn’t speak for a second, she prodded, “Did you have a nightmare about what happened last night, Randy? Everything is okay. We’re fine.” He blinked and brought her into focus. “I wasn’t having a nightmare. It just freaked me out a little…there at the end.” “What?” “Kenny. He was right here. I was talking to him.” He rubbed his eyes hard. “I guess it was a dream though, huh?” “Yeah, it was a dream, honey.” Randy shook his head as though to throw off the clinging fingers of the phantasm. “Wow, that was weird. What time is it?” “You’ve only been asleep for a little over an hour.” She brushed a damp tendril of hair off his cheek. She could smell his 126
Tricked Truths sweat from where she was sitting. It still possessed the sweet quality she associated with his infancy, bringing the sting of tears to her eyes. God, she loved him so much. “Do you want to tell me about the dream?” “It was Kenny. He was sitting right where you’re sitting now. He was wearing his Notre Dame hat and that red jacket that he never wanted to take off long enough for you or Gran to wash. He was telling me…” Grace’s soothing gesture on his shoulder slowed. “What, honey?” “He was telling me…something…I can’t remember now. It was something about Trick.” “What?” Grace was glad that Randy seemed too preoccupied with trying to remember the details of his dream to notice how sharply she’d spoken. She waited while his face crinkled up with the effort of trying to recall. “I don’t know… I can’t remember. God, that was weird. At first I didn’t think it was strange at all. We were just talking like we always did and everything was cool. Then I sort of noticed the outline of my computer against the window and I realized where I was. That freaked me out. Did I yell out or something?” he asked. Grace nodded. “Are you still scared?” Randy considered for a second before answering. “Nah. It was just Kenny.” “It was just a dream about Kenny,” Grace corrected softly. “You think about him a lot, don’t you, Randy?” His face screwed up and he avoided Grace’s eyes. “Yeah.” “Why don’t you ever talk to me about it?” Randy shrugged as he plucked at the blanket. “I know it makes you sad to think about him and Gran being gone, especially when you…you know, had to have that surgery and stuff,” he finally said in a low, cracking voice. 127
Tricked Truths Grace resisted an urge to crush him in her arms, knowing instinctively he didn’t want to be treated like a baby at that moment. “Randy, I know that scared you. But I’m fine…better than fine. It was just a cyst. Nothing serious. You believe that, don’t you?” She waited until he made eye contact with her. “Yeah.” She sighed slowly with relief when she sensed his honesty. She’d found the lump in her breast too soon after the terrible losses of Gran and Kenny. Way too soon for her own comfort…or Randy’s. “You know, I still would like to talk about Kenny and Gran with you sometimes.” “You would?” he asked as he looked up at her uncertainly. Grace nodded. “We don’t always have to talk about them in a sad way. Not unless we feel like it. I’d like to talk about how great they were and all the fun times, too. Who better to talk about that stuff than with you? We were the ones who loved them the most.” Grace saw the vulnerable expression on his face slowly morph into one of calm acceptance. “Yeah, I guess so. Sometimes I think of the things Kenny would say and I want to crack up. But it doesn’t seem right, you know…” “You mean like when he would sing the National Anthem at ballgames and he would say…” “…Gave proof to the night, that the stars are all us…” Grace snorted with laughter. Randy’s eyes widened with surprise at the sound before he started laughing, too. “Where did he get that from?” Randy asked. Grace shrugged helplessly. “Who knows where Kenny got anything?” “Like…remember when he told me that Evan wasn’t my dad, but that Trick was?” Randy asked, eyes staring to water as he laughed hysterically. He wiped at them with the corner of his sheet, so 128
Tricked Truths he didn’t notice that his mother had gone still and that a barely audible gasp had replaced her giggles. “When did he say that?” Randy grinned broadly. “He only said it once. It was when we were watching a Notre Dame when I was a real little kid. It was the first time I ever heard Trick’s name. Maybe he thought I was too young to remember but it always stuck with me…that name Trick. Guess ’cuz it’s such a funny name.” “Kenny didn’t even ever talk to Trick, did he?” Randy asked curiously. “No, not really. But you’ve heard the story about how Trick saved his life about a million times.” She stared into space, momentarily lost in thought. Kenny may have never had a conversation with Trick—Trick was long gone by the time Kenny came to visit at West End—but Evan used to talk with him sometimes. It had always surprised Grace a little to come upon the polished, sophisticated Evan and her mentally retarded brother holding a conversation. She had long ago recognized Kenny’s simple, profound wisdom on a variety of topics. What shocked her was that Evan had seemed to sense it, too. “Yeah. Trick’s the reason Kenny liked Notre Dame so much.” Randy shook his head slightly, a fond smile on his face. “He really did come up with some weird ideas.” Grace swallowed heavily. “Yeah, he sure did.”
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Chapter 9 Grace’s feet moved like a skittish colt’s on the gravel drive between West End and the Widow’s Cottage. She’d come home from work determined to set things straight with Trick. Every minute of the two hours she’d waited for him to return home had been anxious ones. “What do you mean you’re not going?” Trick demanded. “I would think my meaning is clear after last night. Randy will still go. He’s looking forward to the football game,” she stated, glancing away from Trick’s piercing stare. The humidity was high again today, making his dark brown hair wave above the collar of his shirt. She couldn’t help but notice the shadows beneath his eyes. Surely he hadn’t been as sleepless as she had been after she’d eventually left Randy’s bedroom last night and found that Trick had gone. Of course his absence was exactly what she’d hoped for, exactly what she needed if she hoped to retain even a sliver of control. Trick frowned when he took in not only her averted gaze, but the stubborn tilt to her chin. Never mind that he’d grudgingly conceded she was right. He’d heard Randy’s voice and Grace’s low, smooth response as he’d passed in the hallway last night. He’d paused when their mutual laughter reached his ears. The reality of their closeness…of the sacredness of their mother and child relationship struck him sharply. It had unexpectedly brought to his mind the connection he’d shared with his own mother. 130
Tricked Truths He’d left the Widow’s Cottage immediately after that. Grace had been right. There was another person involved in this scenario. But just because he admitted that fact didn’t mean that hearing her stark refusal and seeing that stubborn tilt to her chin wasn’t making him as pissed off as a bull with a red flag shoved in its face. “Your meaning is clear, all right. You think that I’m incapable of controlling myself when it comes to you? Is that it? I told you from the start all you have to say is no. I haven’t heard it yet.” Grace gritted her teeth. “Well, you’re hearing it now. No.” “Fine,” he said flatly. “So explain to me again why you’re not going to the football game with Randy and me.” Her lips fell open in exasperation. “What would be the point?” “What’d you think, that I was asking you out on a date or something? I told you the other night what was between us. I wasn’t asking you to go to the football game because I was trying to court you for Christ’s sake!” Grace held herself erect despite the tingling heat that seemed to sink slowly through her brain at the sarcasm in his tone. She shouldn’t have been shocked. The idea of them seeing each other because they liked and respected each other was obviously a ridiculous concept. She glanced down the pathway warily, worried that Randy might overhear their heated conversation, but no one was to be seen in the vicinity. “Why did you, then?” she finally asked in a facsimile of a calm voice. He crossed his arms loosely beneath his ribcage and shrugged. “I thought it would be a good idea for the majority of the residents of Everly to see that I was on friendly terms with you.” “Oh. That’s…” She glanced away. “That was nice of you.” He scoffed. “Forget nice. I don’t take to having my nights interrupted by shattered windows and late night visits from Charlie Helton. It was a good idea to ask you to the football game before and it still is. Now are you going, or not?” When he saw her hesita131
Tricked Truths tion, he prodded, “Don’t you think you should go for Randy’s sake?” Anger replaced her uncertainty at that. “You really can be a son of a bitch, Trick Burnett,” she accused softly. His teeth flashed whitely in his sun-darkened face. “I think I told you that you were messing with the wrong man. Better bring a sweater to the game, it’s supposed to get a little chilly tomorrow night,” he tossed over his shoulder as he strolled toward West End. **** Grace guiltily shoved the heap of clothing into her closet when she heard Randy call out to her from the living room that Trick had arrived. She would be mortified if either male discovered that she’d tried on and taken off four different outfits for the casual affair of a high school football game. She wasn’t even quite sure what to make of her unprecedented prissy behavior. She glanced at herself in the vanity mirror, frantically fingercombed her thick hair and frowned at her image for her silliness. Trick leaned casually against the kitchen counter when she walked into the kitchen, an amused, smug grin on his face as he listened Randy relate a story in which she caught a reference to Anderson Meeks. Randy’s back was to her, but Grace would have bet money that his knowing expression would have matched Trick’s to a T. Trick cleared his throat in a subtle warning and straightened when he noticed Grace. “He’s a little kid compared to you, Randy,” Grace admonished Randy just as she attempted a smile of greeting at Trick. “You shouldn’t be making fun of anyone, let alone someone who’s not your equal.” Randy rolled his eyes. “He’s not my equal when it comes to meanness. You should hear the way he humiliates his friends. Anderson Meeks could give me lessons in bullying, Mom.” “As if I want you to learn them!” Grace exclaimed. 132
Tricked Truths “Ha, so you do admit that he’s a master bully?” Randy challenged. Grace shot Trick a venomous look when he snorted with suppressed laughter. He shrugged. “Sorry. I just remember Andy Senior was the same way when we were little. From what I hear, he’s still at it. I know he makes life miserable for plenty of employees at Everly National.” Grace consciously exhaled her pique. Anderson Meeks was at the top of her classroom nuisance list. She’d already had to punish him once with detention, three times by making him sit out at recess and once by sending Jimmy Gustafson, Blake Shannon and him to Mr. Abercrombie’s office. The latter was for talking his two faithful followers into holding a boy so that Anderson could use him as a punching bag. Still, it wasn’t appropriate for her to let Randy know that when he was the boy’s tutor. “Well, it sounds like he comes by his problems honestly then. Andy Junior is just a kid and…” She stopped abruptly, recognizing her error at calling the boy by his hated nickname when Trick and Randy both exploded with laughter. She could as easily have stopped herself from grinning broadly when she met Trick’s sparkling eyes as she could have single-handedly altered the course of the earth around the sun. That little fact didn’t bode well for the rest of the evening. An alarm started buzzing in her head, distracting her from the heat in Trick’s eyes. Trick sensed the second when Grace slammed some figurative door shut in her mind. Her smile faded. He knew it was illogical. But something in him went a little crazy when Grace denied herself to him. Why the withholding of one of her rare, luminescent smiles should raise his hackles just as surely as her denial of her body had was a mystery to him. He’d mentally prepared himself by erecting a few of his own psychological walls against her for her tonight but he’d felt those 133
Tricked Truths flimsy barriers begin to falter instantly when she’d walked into the kitchen. He’d never seen Grace in jeans before. It was a longestablished personal preference to see a woman in that tried and true garment more than any other. Skirts and dresses were nice for flirting with his senses but a pair of well-fitting jeans that clung to a sexy woman’s thighs, hips and ass was what typically inspired the most illicit fantasies about peeling her out of them. The thoughts inspired by a pair of tight jeans on Grace’s long legs were downright pornographic. If those jeans had made his defensive walls shudder, then the unexpected brilliance of her smile had shattered them to dust. That realization was responsible for him not protesting when Grace insisted that Randy was taller than her and therefore should take the front seat in Trick’s car. Considering everything, Trick supposed it was best to focus on the road instead of being driven to distraction by what snuggled at the juncture of Grace’s firm, denim-encased thighs. The game had already started by the time they’d bought their tickets from the Everly Booster Club and Trick had purchased Randy some popcorn and a coke. Grace didn’t have a chance to be self-conscious until the numerous lights illuminating the football field were suddenly shining down on her while she blinked dazedly into the faces of hundreds of Everly residents. Dozens of people called out familiar greetings to Trick as they ascended the bleachers. Grace noticed a lot of curious glances cast her way and a few hostile ones, as well, mostly from women. That didn’t surprise her a bit. Trick surely must be the most eligible bachelor in Trenton County. Trick arrowed straight up the steps toward a man with thinning red hair, an amiable, round face and a well-fed belly hanging over his belt buckle. The woman sitting beside him was grinning ear to ear and wore a t-shirt that read Fierce Warrior Mom. 134
Tricked Truths Trick had told them earlier that Buck and Judy’s daughters ranged in age from nine to thirteen. The three girls sitting on the row in front of the couple shared their father’s flaming hair, and like their mother were decked out in an array of green and gold paraphernalia. Grace hadn’t ever been witness to such a profusion of ribbons, curls, ponytails, batting eyelashes and lip gloss in her life. She was thrilled and relieved to see a familiar face sitting next to the man who stood and shook Trick’s hand. “Ava! I didn’t know you were going to be here,” Grace exclaimed as she exchanged a hug with Ava just as Trick was getting one from the Fierce Warrior Mom. “I never miss a football game if I can help it,” Ava stated matter-of-factly as she fondly mussed Randy’s hair. “It’s much more a topic of interest as to why you’re here,” she added in a voice only loud enough for Grace to hear. The three girls scooted down eagerly on the bench to make room for them. Their names were Jessie, Tara and Melissa and all three of them giggled when Trick introduced them to Randy. Randy eyed them like they were some exotic, possibly dangerous, newly discovered species and subtly stepped back so that Grace would have to file into the spot next to a wide-eyed Jessie Flynn instead of him. “Well how do you like that?” Buck was saying loudly as they settled into their seats. “You got a little miniature of yourself running around Everly, Trick.” Randy paused in the action of sucking on his straw and laughed self-consciously. “He’s hardly miniature,” Trick said as he cuffed Randy fondly on the back of the head. “Only adds to my point. You were a monster at his age, too. You play ball, Randy?” Randy nodded, unable to speak momentarily around a mouthful of popcorn. 135
Tricked Truths “Offense or defense?” Jessie demanded. “Both,” Randy stated, becoming abruptly fascinated with the game. Grace took one look at Jessie’s face and knew she was more smitten by Randy’s mysterious aloofness than being put off by it. She suddenly realized that she and Trick were sharing a grin behind Randy’s shoulder. The warm gleam that she saw in his blue eyes undid her, just as it always had on the few occasions that she’d been witness to it. For a few seconds she became as seemingly absorbed in the football game as Randy was. The first half of the game went quickly as they divided into two conversational parties that included Trick, Buck, Randy and Ava muttering about bad ref calls, forecasting future plays and cheering loyally for Buddy, who was having a good passing game. By halftime the score was tied despite the opponent’s extremely aggressive defense and a rather mediocre show of coverage by the Warrior’s line. Grace, on the other front, made fast and easy friends with Judy Flynn and the three girls, discussing their favorite teachers at Pleasant Meadows, where Grace had bought her jeans and her belt—which Jessie and Tara thought were so cute—and a conversation which the three girls seemed to take very seriously about favorite shopping places in Indianapolis. At halftime Ava volunteered to take the four children down to the concession stand for coffee and hot chocolate, as the night had become as cool as Trick had warned it would be. Randy clearly balked at being a member of the feminine party. “Come on, pal,” Trick muttered for the boy’s ears alone as he tapped Randy’s shoulder and stood to join Ava and the gumpopping Flynn girls. “No guts, no glory.” When they returned Jessie was laughing hysterically at something Randy had said. Grace hoped whatever it was comprised of more than two syllables and a grunt. She got so caught up in the unfamiliar musings of a mother watching a child in the prickly rites 136
Tricked Truths of adolescent socialization that she didn’t immediately notice that Trick was the first down the aisle instead of one of the Flynn girls. “Scoot down, will you?” he asked distractedly as he balanced three hot beverages in his hand. “Damn, these are hot,” he muttered with a grimace as he set down the drinks between him and Grace when he sat. “Were you coffee or hot chocolate?” “I was the coffee,” Judy said. “Grace had hot chocolate.” “Where’s yours?” Grace asked when she noticed that Trick gave away the last beverage to Tara and then scooted down the bench disconcertingly close to her. She squeezed her thighs close together when his long legs bumped into hers, but she couldn’t prevent the slight pressure of his hips pressing into hers or the light brush of his broad shoulders. Every centimeter of her skin where he came into contact with her tingled with peaked awareness. Trick shrugged. “We must have been one short. Can I share with you?” Her gaze flew to his warily. His eyes sparkled with deviltry. Grace scoffed and returned her attention to the football field. “Grace?” She felt like a feather had just tickled her neck when he leaned close and spoke quietly next to her ear. “Yes?” “I wasn’t kidding. It’s getting a little chilly out here. Can I have a sip?” “Oh, sure,” she murmured, embarrassed. She’d assumed he’d been teasing her. His long fingers brushed against hers when he took the beverage. He held her gaze as he deliberately turned the cup and placed his lips where hers had just been a few seconds ago. Surely it had been her imagination that she thought she saw his tongue flick rapidly over the rim, as though he were capturing her essence mixed with the sweet chocolate. Heat swept through her belly and sank to her sex, bringing with it an acute ache of longing. 137
Tricked Truths “Enjoying yourself?” he asked. She could smell his spicy, subtle aftershave mixed with the rich, singular scent that was Trick alone. His innocent question struck her as charged and intimate when accompanied by his warm stare. “Uh…” She blinked, trying to refocus on the actual content of the question versus the latent sensuality behind it. “Yes. Very much.” “Not getting cold?” he asked as he took another slow sip. Grace tore her eyes away from where they had been jealously tracing the path of the hot chocolate. The muscular movement of his throat as he swallowed struck her as powerfully erotic. “No. I’m actually quite warm.” She’d barely registered the slight curl of Trick’s well-shaped lips when Randy called out, “Hey, Trick, is this coffee yours?” Trick glanced around casually. “Yeah, it must be.” He took it at the same time he handed Grace back her cup. “Should have had the hot chocolate. Tastes especially good tonight.” His grin only widened in reaction to Grace’s repressive glare. Thankfully Judy asked him a question about the plant at that moment, granting Grace a chance to take a deep breath and gather herself. How could he possibly make her body respond with a hot look and a slow smile? She felt like some mysterious chemical had been mainlined into her bloodstream, instantly enlivening every nerve and tissue in her body. It had always been there, that electrical connection between Trick and her, but their recent sexual encounters seemed to amplify the sensation to a nearly unbearable degree of awareness. Grace didn’t know if Trick sensed the same thing or not, but he didn’t tease her deliberately with his potent effect on her for the remainder of the game. Or at least he didn’t in any obvious sense. Still, every brush of her shoulder against his arm, every bump of his 138
Tricked Truths thigh against her own and every glance from his summer blue eyes felt like the sexual equivalent of Chinese water torture. What Grace couldn’t understand was why he was going out of his way to flirt with her. His demeanor had been cold and calculating since she’d been back. His seeming change of heart made her wary. Did he really enjoy being with her, or was he just using his sexuality to manipulate her again into telling him the truth? Not knowing the answer to her questions certainly didn’t diminish her hyperawareness of him a bit. During the taut culmination of the game, Buddy led the Warriors for a tie-breaking drive down the field. Their little group stood along with the rest of the crowd, clapping and cheering loudly. When the Flynns’ son threw a completed pass into the end zone with only four seconds left on the clock, the stands exploded with noise. Ava embraced Buck, Judy was the recipient of an enthusiastic bear hug from Trick, while Randy looked strained and vaguely panicked as Jessie Flynn threw her arms around him while she jumped up and down excitedly. Grace felt like her breath stuck like thick molasses in her lungs when Judy giddily turned to hug Buck and Trick glanced over at her. The crowd surged and waved around them like a turbulent sea while she and Trick existed at the surreally still eye of the storm. He reached for her. The message broadcast in his fierce gaze told Grace that it wasn’t for a chummy bear hug, either. “Did you see that, Trick? That was amazing!” Randy yelled over the din of the crowd, unfrozen now that he’d been released from Jessie’s brief embrace. Trick paused in his forward action. He held Grace’s stare and gently removed a strand of hair from her cheek before he turned and gave his full attention to Randy. “Buddy really delivered in the clinch, huh?” 139
Tricked Truths Grace exhaled shakily after several seconds, wondering if she’d imagined the charged moment. It frightened her to consider how vulnerable she became when it came to Trick. What if Randy hadn’t called out at that moment? Would she have willingly gone into Trick’s arms, allowing not only half of Trenton County but also her own son to see her in a torrid clench with him? The thought kept occurring to her on the ride back to West End, making her squirm in the backseat with discomfort and rising anger at her lack of self-control. She unfairly took it out on Trick after he walked him to the front door of the Widow’s Cottage. “Why don’t you go on in, pal. I need to talk to your mom for a second in private,” Trick said in an easy-going manner once Randy had unlocked the door with Grace’s keys. Randy glanced back in surprise. His gaze swept between Trick’s tall form and his mother. Grace could see him clearly with the aid of the porch light. The puzzled expression on his youthful face that segued into dawning hope just further unwound her already frayed nerves. Her stance was stiff and militant when Randy said his goodnights and she turned to face Trick. “You think it’s funny, don’t you?” she accused in a low whisper a split second after Randy shut the front door. “What?” Trick asked, bemused. “To toy with me. It must be a source of great amusement to you to know that you can taunt someone that you despise so much in front of the noses of hundreds of people, all while knowing I can’t do a damned thing about it.” Trick’s mouth hung partially open. “Taunt you?” he finally said after a stunned pause. The bitterness of her tone and the ferocity of her attack had taken him off-guard. Now that his surprise was fad140
Tricked Truths ing, anger flooded into its place. “Is that what your twisted mind makes of some harmless flirting?” “Harmless? There’s never anything harmless about your teasing. You’re a bully, that’s what you are, Trick Burnett!” For a few seconds he seethed with fury as he stared down into her strained, equally angry face. So that’s what it felt like to her to sit next to him for forty-five consecutive minutes while they exchanged a grand total of probably three dozen words. She’d felt like she was being tortured, taunted, teased… The blaze of his anger dimmed. Come to think of it, that wasn’t such a bad description of what it had felt like to sit next to her for those excruciating moments of tickling stimulation and simultaneous depravation. “So it was torture for you, huh, Grace?” She instantly became wary when she noticed the change in his tone. He still seemed ready to pounce, but the low, rumbling quality of his voice made her think that his motivations for doing so were entirely different altogether. She paused before answering and he used the opportunity to move ever so subtly closer to her. “You agreed that this had to stop between us,” she whispered desperately. “I agreed to stop if you told me no. If you think I can control the heat that’s between us, you’ve overestimated my ability, Grace.” She made a soft, helpless sound deep in her throat when his hand encircled the side of her neck and his fingers stole along her sensitive scalp, making tiny circular movements that made her want to purr. “Is it like this for all men who touch you, Grace?” Trick asked through a mouth gone rigid as he continued to caress her. “Has every man who got caught in your web been willing to sacrifice his good judgment, his honor…his pride in order to touch you just once more?” 141
Tricked Truths Grace’s eyes closed over the burn of tears behind her eyelids. “That’s not fair, Trick,” she said brokenly. “You’re damned right it’s not.” He drew her closer to him until their bodies ghosted one another’s with a tantalizingly subtle pressure. “So you don’t play kiss and tell, is that it?” “I don’t play games. Period.” Trick’s ire crested at that. She wasn’t only playing a wicked game with him, she was turning him upside-down and inside-out at it. He was so dizzy he didn’t even get the ultimate goal anymore. Was it to beat Grace at her own game or fuck her until they were both so senseless that neither even knew the meaning of winning or losing? “Just tell me this, then,” he grated. “Did my father make your eyes go dark when he touched you? Could he make your throat vibrate like a satisfied kitten when he petted you?” He dipped down until their faces were only inches apart. His calloused fingers rose to lightly knead the flexible, soft shell of her ear. “Could just the touch of his fingers on your skin make you wet, Grace?” Grace gave a soft moan of mixed misery and desire. The fact that he knew precisely what he was doing to her with his touch struck her as both humiliating and unbearably arousing. “It wouldn’t matter what I say, John. You’d call me a liar, even if it was just in your head. You’ve already made up your mind about me.” Trick didn’t even seem to notice her reversion to calling him his given name. He just shook his head slowly. “That’s where you’re wrong. My mind can never settle in one spot when it comes to you.” Grace gasped when he suddenly kissed her on the mouth, quick, hard, and potent. “And another thing that you’re wrong about,” he muttered next to her trembling lips when he raised his head after the lancing, unexpected attack. “I don’t despise you. I’m not so far gone that I 142
Tricked Truths trust you for a second and I’d give my left nut to know what you’re up to.” He palmed the back of her head before he released her. “But I’m a universe away from despising you, Grace.”
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Chapter 10 Summer still had one more trick tucked into her leafy bodice that year. Just when everyone figured that fall was making its entrance, the fourth week of September dawned sultry and humid. The air itself became an entity, one with a stifling, gravid weight. The number of fights at the Trading Post doubled during that week, but the number of drinks sold at the rowdy bar tripled so the owner wasn’t complaining too much. There had been four accidents reported in the past several nights involving skittish wild animals—three deer and one wolf— suddenly darting with seeming suicidal intent in the direct path of a car. The Everly Community Clinic had been inundated with bizarre complaints, including mysterious skin rashes, extreme lethargy, flaring tempers, and bizarre dreams. Doc Wilkins jokingly bracketed all the symptoms into the category of the heat wave blues. When Trick pulled into his driveway the following Friday afternoon and saw Doug Grayson’s car, his already volatile temper kicked up from a frothy simmer to a white hot boil. Grayson had to be there visiting Grace because Ava had taken off late this morning to visit a cousin in Lafayette for the weekend. Escorted by Grace, his lawyer exited the Widow’s Cottage as Trick got out of his truck. Grayson didn’t say anything but looked slightly abashed as he gave Trick a polite nod before heading for his car. Trick’s accusatory stare quickly transferred to Grace, who stood on the front porch. 144
Tricked Truths He was surprised that she hadn’t immediately gone indoors when she noticed him. Her careful, entirely obvious avoidance of him during the course of the week following the football game was what had him on the edge between violence or lunacy. What other people in Everly blamed on the weather that week, Trick held Grace Jamison solely responsible for. She must have realized that she was exposed because Trick saw her start slightly before she turned on her heels to dive inside for cover. His gaze ran over her hotly before he slammed the door to the truck so hard the cab rocked. She was wearing a pair of cutoff jean shorts that only served to scramble his already frayed nerves into a frazzled tangle of confusing messages. “Where’s Randy?” he called out. Trick barely noticed when Doug Grayson’s car swung around and passed him as he left West End. Grace’s outstretched hand hesitated in midair a few inches from the handle of the screen door. “In the corral with Indigo,” she replied, only half turning around. “I told him that he could go over and take a look at a colt in Haley that I’m thinking about buying. Did he ask your permission to miss dinner?” “Yes. I told him it was okay.” Trick ground his back teeth together in frustration when she threw one skittish glance back at him before she opened the door and ducked inside. Fifteen minutes later Indigo found him in the tack room fingering some old reins and staring into space, not even aware of what his hands were doing. “Not planning on coming with us to Haley?” Trick shook his head. “Nah.” “Are you sure? We’ll miss the company.” “Trust me. You won’t miss it.” Indigo tensed at his tone. 145
Tricked Truths “Sorry,” Trick muttered as he glanced away from his friend’s eyes and snapped the supple reins on his thigh. “S’okay. This heat is even turning Daisy into a bitch,” Indigo said with a smile, referring to one of their most docile mares. Trick exhaled deeply, trying to dispel his prickly tension. “I already told Randy it was just going to be you and him this evening. Be sure to tell him all the things that go into your decision in buying an animal so that he can learn.” “Does he know you’re buying the colt for him?” “No, and don’t tell him yet. If he leaked that to Grace I’d never hear the end of it.” Indigo raised an eyebrow but just shrugged good-naturedly and bid him a good night. Trick stilled when he opened the stable door ten minutes later and caught the fleeting glimpse of blonde hair and pale, naked legs against the shadows at the edge of the woods. His gaze darted down the drive to see if Indigo’s truck was gone. His mouth pressed together in a determined line before he turned back into the stables. **** The air that filled Grace’s lungs as she made the return lap from the floating dock felt so heavy she wondered if it would weigh her down to the bottom of the lake. The water temperature was only minimally cooler than the cloying air. The achy tension that had plagued her sex for days now only seemed to swell and throb, making a mockery of her ideas for a refreshing swim. The one thing that would bring her relief—the one man—was the very thing she so carefully avoided. Still, the exercise released some of the pent-up energy that had been slowly, painfully building in her muscles during this past week. Or at least she thought it had. All the strain slammed back into her sinews when she rose up the ladder and saw Trick standing on the dock. 146
Tricked Truths She paused uncertainly for a moment. The rigid, unreadable expression on his face made her briefly consider plunging back into the water away from him. But of course that would have been erratic, irrational behavior. When he remained unmoving as she reached for her towel, however, she regretted denying herself the hasty retreat. His hot, penetrating gaze followed her movements, his body poised for action. “I thought you had already left for Haley,” she attempted casually as she dried herself off. She glanced around for her sundress, anxious to cover her bikini-clad body in the presence of Trick’s palpable stare. She realized with a sinking feeling that he stood in front of where it lay on the dock. “Randy and Indigo left. I never planned on going this evening.” She slowed in the motion of drying her neck and then stopped. For the first time in a week she looked directly into his eyes. What she saw there made her lips fall open. His eyebrows rose in a subtle, mocking challenge. “Nowhere to run, is there, Grace?” Her gaze lowered down over him anxiously. He looked hard and unforgiving standing there in a white button-down shirt that shone starkly against his bronzed skin and a pair of faded jeans that emphasized the stark power of his muscles and obvious male virility. Something inside of Grace seemed to quicken, to strain toward him as though he were a magnet and she a tiny, quivering filament of metal, every molecule in her body obeying some unopposable law of nature and aligning itself to his indelible pull. The moisture in her mouth evaporated when she registered the thin straps of supple leather he held against his hard thigh. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said huskily. His expression told her that he was disappointed in the unimaginativeness of her reply, but Grace barely registered it. Her gaze fixed on the slight hitch of his hand and the resultant subtle swing of the reins against the denim of his jeans. 147
Tricked Truths “I’m talking about the fact that you’ve been avoiding me like you think I’m going to infect you with something.” “I would have thought you’d be glad about that.” “I’m not glad about it right now.” His eyes lowered over her, making Grace feel like she was being sexually scoured. When those blue lasers finally met her gaze again, they gleamed hotly. “What do you say, Grace? We’re all alone here. You’ve been a good girl for more than a week now. That should make being bad all that much more fun.” Grace jerked out of the trance his low, mesmerizing voice had created when the content of his words finally soaked into her brain. She hauled up short when he spread his mile-long legs, blocking her from passing him on the dock. His hand resonated heat when he spread it across her naked waist and hip. “I want you so bad I’m about to explode,” he admitted with a growl. Grace stared up at him in open disbelief. The starkness of his confession, the need that vibrated his deep voice, shook at the foundations of her reality. She gasped in surprise when she felt him take her wrist into his hands and slip it through a loop of soft leather. “I know how much you’re fighting what’s between us. I’m going to make it easy for you, Grace. Have you ever let a man tie you up?” he asked in a low, intimate tone that caused her skin to prickle and her nipples to tighten almost painfully. She shook her head, unable to speak with so much anxiety and desire clogging her throat. “There will be a freedom in it for you. Give me your other hand, Grace.” For three unbearably long seconds, Trick stared into Grace’s dazed, desire-darkened eyes, on a knife’s edge about how she would respond. He didn’t need to look down at her hand to know 148
Tricked Truths what she’d decided. He saw the moment she made her decision in her wide eyes. His hand wrapped around her proffered wrist and the leather strap followed. “Lie down on the dock,” he instructed. “Trick…” Grace began anxiously. “Yes?” he asked quietly. “I… Not…” “Not what?” “Not intercourse,” she whispered rapidly on an exhaling breath. The thought of him imbedding himself in her, branding her irredeemably for the first time under these conditions caused a pain to cleave her spirit that even her monumental lust couldn’t dull. “You mean you don’t want me to fuck your pussy?” he asked bluntly. Heat flooded Grace’s cheeks and sex at his use of blunt language. She wanted him to fuck her pussy. Very much, but she just…couldn’t let him. “Yes,” she replied, despite her thoughts to the contrary. He just stared at her for a few moments, as if carefully considering. “All right. As long as you deny me nothing else.” Grace sank slowly onto the dock, but her eyes stayed glued to his. “Nothing,” she whispered. He unbuttoned his shirt as he watched her, twisting his taut torso, impatiently ridding himself of the unwanted garment. Grace didn’t speak when he knelt and soberly untied her bathing suit from around her neck and reached around her to unfasten the back clip. His gaze remained utterly focused on his task. She lifted her hips when he hooked his fingers in her bikini bottoms allowing him to lower the meager garment down her legs, his palms opening to skim her skin in a caress as he went. His expression remained rigid as he nimbly tightened a loop of leather around each of her ankles and laced the supple band be149
Tricked Truths tween two boards on the dock, tying off the knots with expert efficiency. Grace watched, mesmerized at the sight of his delineated muscles flexing and bunching and gleaming with a fine sheen of sweat as he worked. By the time he’d finished his breathing had visibly escalated. The only sound that entered her ears for several tense seconds was the gentle lapping of the lake against the dock. The air was so thick it seemed to insulate Trick and her in their own private little world. Her heartbeat pounded with increasing excitement as he stared down at her naked, bound body. She must be out of her mind to let him do this. But she wanted him so much that making herself wholly vulnerable to him seemed like a small enough price to pay. And maybe…just maybe if she showed him how much she trusted him, he would give her a measure of trust in turn. She watched wide-eyed as he slowly reached for her. He lightly skimmed his fingertips from her ribs down her belly, her stomach muscles leaping in excitement beneath his touch. “You’re not afraid, are you?” “No.” His hand opened on her belly. “I don’t know what the right thing to do is where you’re concerned anymore. I only know I don’t like it when you withhold yourself from me.” “I thought it was best,” she said. “I still do.” She stifled a moan. The combination of perspiration and the moisture remaining from her swim was giving his hand a smooth glide across her skin. Despite the oppressive heat, her nipples pebbled tight and hard. “Then why are you letting me do this?” he asked as he cupped her left breast in his hand, molding her to his palm. Her nipple popped out between his fingers, turgid and red. But the only thing that touched it was his gaze.
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Tricked Truths “Because…because…I want to,” she whispered. “I want you.” Her hips shifted in arousal as she watched him massage and shape her breast in his hand. “You’re not worried that I won’t take advantage of the situation?” he asked in a husky voice as he finally allowed himself to whisk his fingers over the bud of her nipple. His cock tightened in sympathy with her responsive flesh, straining uncomfortably at the fly of his jeans. “What do you mean?” she asked slowly. “What if I tied you up so that I could get you to tell me what you and Grayson are keeping from me?” He felt her go entirely still. “You wouldn’t do that,” she said when his gaze finally slid up her body to meet hers, his eyes more sultry than the late summer day. The rapid heartbeat at her throat fluttered up a notch when he smiled. He swung one long leg over her stretched body, straddling her hips. She moaned softly when he held both of her breasts in his hands as though for inspection. “Your breasts are beautiful,” he murmured thickly. Grace glanced down at the erotic sight of her pale flesh filling his dark hands. One long finger moved to catch a drop of sweat that had accumulated in the valley between her breasts. “Hot?” he asked. She nodded. He leaned over and trailed his cupped palm along the surface of the lake. Grace watched fixedly as he slowly released a thin trickle of water onto her nipple. She groaned in rising arousal as she watched the tiny droplets bounce off and then cling to the tiny bumps and invaginations. Her hips rose, needful for friction against her pussy. 151
Tricked Truths Trick let her grind into him for a few seconds, just as appreciative as she was of the feeling of her pressing against his aching balls and heavy cock. But then he bracketed her slender hips with his hands and placed her firmly on the dock. “Stay still,” he ordered. Grace bit her lower lip to still her protest. When she saw how he waited patiently, however, she nodded her head in agreement. He dipped his hand into the cool water again. Grace’s anticipation rose unbearably as he moved his hand over her and treated her other nipple to the same exquisite torture. Perhaps it would have been better if she’d closed her eyes, because the sight of her stiff, red nipples glistening with tiny crystals of meticulously applied water was painfully arousing. Trick’s focused gaze only amplified the sharp ache of her clit. She had never experienced anything akin to the desire that pulsed in her pussy at that moment. She had to force herself not to arch her back off the dock in order to press her body against Trick…to beg him to touch her. Trick dripped the last few drops of water onto her nipple, watching in fascination as it drew even tighter from the subtle pressure. He glanced up when she made a muffled sound and saw her front teeth digging into her lower lip. “Tell me what you want, Grace.” “Touch me,” she whispered hoarsely. “How?” he demanded as he leaned down over her so that he could better see how desire transformed her beautiful eyes. “With your mouth. Please.” His cock surged uncomfortably in his jeans, demanding attention. Trick impatiently unbuttoned the fly and sent his hand down into his briefs, freeing his cock at least partially from the confines. He slid his hand below the elastic band to the root and pistoned his fingers over his entire length once in a perfunctory gesture. When he saw Grace’s eyes follow his movements hungrily, however, his second pump was more deliberate. 152
Tricked Truths Well, she had asked nicely, after all. He kept his throbbing cock in his hand as he leaned over and plumped one firm, pointed breast in his palm. Her nipple felt gratifying stiff against his lips and tongue. He drew on her demandingly, so focused on what he was doing that he was only vaguely aware of the cries that broke free of her lips into the stifling air. God, he wanted to hear her scream full throttle—no inhibitions, no anxieties about their effect on Randy, no thoughts of Evan or the past—just Grace and him and the desire that continually swelled and undulated between them. Her nipple was a sweet captive as he held it against the roof of his mouth and his tongue whipped her gently. When he felt her hips rise again off the dock, seeking him blindly, he sucked and slid his lips back simultaneously, making her rosy nipple snap out of his mouth with a precise popping noise. “Back down, honey.” Grace forced her hips to relax at his taut command. Her eyes were drawn irrevocably to his crotch where he fisted his engorged cock almost lazily. His hand was large, but so was his cock. To watch him stroke himself with the casual flick of his wrist, to see his big, masculine fist running over the heavily veined stalk and over the smooth, fleshy, plum-sized head was the most erotic thing Grace had ever witnessed. She felt that familiar sucking sensation in her womb, as if her body recognized what it required and demanded it in its own primitive, powerful language. Trick paused when he saw the expression in her eyes as she stared at his cock. He rose up off her and removed his clothing quickly, never removing his gaze from her bound beauty. When he straddled her again, fully nude, he placed his knees just below her armpits. “You have to pay for looking at me like that, Grace. Now you’ll have to wait for your pleasure while you see to mine.” 153
Tricked Truths She blinked, her eyelids heavy with lust when he pushed his cock next to her breast. Her eyes remained glued to the sight of him pressing the bulbous, straining head against her damp nipple. A drop of cum glistened at the slit as he rocked lightly against her. She licked at her lower lip hungrily as she watched, spellbound, as the clear globe swelled in size. Her inhalation scored her throat when he dipped his finger into it and rubbed the fluid into her achy nipple. “Jesus, you’re sweet,” Trick muttered when he felt how stiff she was. He pinched at her lightly, knowing it would be a sweet torture for her given her increased blood flow and hypersensitized nerves. When she cried out sharply in arousal, he brought the same cum-dampened finger to her mouth. “Spread your lips.” He waited until she’d opened those pink lips, the object of far too many of his fantasies. “Now keep them open until I say otherwise.” Grace’s breath caught in her lungs when he deliberately began to outline her mouth with the residue of his cum. She wanted to run her tongue over her lips so badly that it hurt. He inserted his finger into her mouth instead. She instinctively clamped around him. “Uh uh, honey,” he murmured thickly, withdrawing his finger from her tight lips. “I didn’t tell you to close yet. Open up wide. That’s it. Now are you going to stay that way?” he questioned as he eyed her damp cavern and red tongue. Grace nodded, eyes wide. “Good.” He gently cradled her head in his palm, lifting her off the dock, and inserted two long, thick fingers into her open mouth. Her eyes flashed up to his when he didn’t touch a surface, instead fitting himself into her empty space. He felt her head crane back against his hand, but she didn’t close her lips around him in order to control the movement. 154
Tricked Truths “You’re afraid that I’ll gag you, aren’t you? I can see your throat. You have to trust me, Grace.” She went still at that. Trick had the ability to wound her emotionally, but she never believed for a second that he would cruelly harm her in any other way. The tension in her neck lessened, and he felt absurdly pleased at her demonstration of trust. “Hold still,” he ordered softly before he began to sweep his fingers everywhere…along her teeth, next to her cheeks, along the roof of her mouth, along her tongue, wetting himself with her. For some reason Grace didn’t fully comprehend, his actions caused liquid to literally flood out of her pussy. The fact that he forced her to accept him in a manner that one human being wasn’t accustomed to accepting another aroused her unbearably. When he demanded again that she keep still with her mouth open and reached to the back of her throat, just millimeters away from stimulating her gag reflex, Grace remained stationary, using a slow breath to calm herself. His cock felt like it lengthened an inch where it pressed against her breasts when he took in the mingled expression of trust and desire in her depthless eyes as she looked up at him. He withdrew his damp fingers and took his cock into his other hand. He glanced at her to make sure she was watching as he placed the fingers that had just been in her mouth next to his erection like a measuring stick. “Do you understand?” he asked huskily. She just nodded and opened her mouth wider. For a second, he thought he was going to explode then and there at her potent eagerness. Trick cradled her head again, this time inserting the head of his cock between her lips. Unlike his two fingers, he filled her. He gritted his teeth when he pushed and then slid against her warm tongue. He felt her close on him ever so slightly. “Keep it spread wide, Grace,” he ordered more roughly than he’d intended. But this was the sweetest sort of torture. When he 155
Tricked Truths felt her release him he pressed back…further and further along her tongue, relishing the tension that built in her. He both sensed and saw that he’d reached the promised limit on the stalk of his cock and withdrew until her lips formed a wide O that just ghosted the circumference of his cock. “Again,” he muttered gutturally before he pressed into her, this time faster. When he reached the predetermined point on his cock, he slid out again rapidly. “Close your mouth for a few seconds,” he commanded when he heard her soft moan, assuming that she was in pain from remaining spread so wide to accommodate his girth. Grace had been groaning from the pain of intense desire, though, not physical discomfort. Desire coiled like a vibrating snake at the base of her spine. Her juices ran between the crack of her ass and down her thighs, anointing the dock. “Let me suck it,” she pleaded. Trick’s mouth went hard with restraint. “Not yet. Open wide again, Grace.” He once again inserted himself into the cavern she’d provided for him, only the underside of his penis pressing against her warm, wet tongue, and her upper teeth lightly scraping his sensitive skin before he reached the limit he’d prescribed for himself and withdrew. The next several pumps were more aggressive as he thrust his hips, in and out, in and out. Just when the tip of his cock was a whisper away from tickling the back of her throat, he slid out of her. “Relax your mouth again,” he instructed. Grace did as he ordered. Her eyes traced him, enthralled by the way his muscles pulled so tight as a result of his arousal combined with his rigid restraint. “Now open wide again.”
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Tricked Truths This time when he presented his cock between her lips he used his fingers to push just the tip—for that was all that would fit—between her widely spread teeth. “Wider,” he demanded. Grace moaned in excitement and embarrassment because she couldn’t stop her heavy salivation along his thick stalk when she stretched her jaw as wide as possible. “You see?” he asked as he looked into her eyes as he gently moved the tip of his penis against her velvet soft cheek, causing a round indentation to roll beneath her skin. “It requires trust on my part as well.” When he withdrew he wiped the saliva that had trailed out with his cock off her chin and lips. He was so excited that he wasn’t sure that he could take much more, and yet… “Are you ready to suck now, Grace?” “Yes.” His cock leapt in his hand. “All right. I’m still going to control the motions though, do you understand?” “Yes.” “Keep your mouth wide until it’s all the way in.” He pressed himself along her tongue, meeting her gaze when he stopped. Grace stared up at him, so filled with sexual tension that she thought she might break. “Wrap your lips, honey,” he whispered roughly. She groaned as she finally closed and tightened around the hard column of flesh. Trick shut his eyes in acute sexual agony at the sensation of being clamped in her wet, tight hold. She pulled so strongly on him with her suck that he had to resist the urge to touch the back of her throat. Her hunger for him always surprised him, but today it shocked him. What sort of a woman hungered for a man this much? 157
Tricked Truths He didn’t have the answer to that. He only knew he was the very lucky recipient of Grace’s desire at that moment. His thoughts splintered, never standing a chance against the overwhelming pleasure of pumping in and out of her tightly pursed lips. When she began to make a bobbing movement with her head he grunted in appreciation, but then flexed his fingers into the hair at her nape, holding her head steady for his invasion. “What did I say, Grace?” She stilled. The sight of her shimmering, desire-darkening eyes looking up at him made him thrust between her straining, pink lips more aggressively. He growled at both the sensation and the image of the first half of his penis sliding in and out of her mouth. “You want to be the one to control the movement. Is that it?” he asked her between clenched teeth. He sensed more than saw her tiny head nod. “All right,” he granted. He slipped out of her until she clamped down only the fleshy head of his cock. “Keep your head steady. Just use your tongue.” Grace’s eyes closed instinctively, perhaps so that she could better focus on the sensation of how he felt beneath her tongue. She thoroughly examined the defined edge beneath the bulbous head, circling it several times to assure herself that she’d memorized the feeling of the thick ridge. She charted the sensation of his slit carefully, pushing her tongue against it so that it gave way slightly to the tip of the persistent intruder. His pleasure spot was already well known to her, but she gave that sensitive skin on the underside of his stalk just beneath the ridge of the fat head special attention today, polishing him with a hard rhythm until she saw the uneven draw of his breath in his abdomen and heard his low grunt of arousal. “Hold still,” he ordered in a voice that sounded almost angry but which Grace recognized as a tone of splintering restraint. 158
Tricked Truths Her eyes widened and her lips strained against his stony flesh when he began to fuck her mouth in a manner that would have caused her shame if she wasn’t nearly as drunk with pleasure as he was. She was bound, helpless to resist his raw lust whether she wanted to or not…which she didn’t. Grace could never…would never resist this man if he clearly demanded something from her. He made his demands clear at the moment. His ridged abdomen flexed as tightly as his thrusting buttocks. His whole powerful body glistened with a light sheen of sweat. His face clenched in an expression of anguished pleasure before he thrust one last time. He withdrew almost entirely from her suckling heat and erupted. Grace leaned forward instinctively, thirsty for the thick fountain of cum that began to spurt from his slit as he gave a deep, throat-tearing roar. But he gripped his fingers tighter in her hair, stilling her. He fisted the base of his cock. “Open,” he whispered hoarsely, unable to manage further instruction in the midst of his crisis of ecstasy. She did what he asked. He came on her spread lips until his abundant issuance dripped from her mouth and chin. Some arrowed straight onto her tongue, where it slowly melted and transferred Trick’s salty, musky essence to her consciousness. Grace stared up at him with wide eyes when his chin fell to his chest and his muscular shoulders slumped forward. His hand moved slightly, soothing her nape before his fingers moved to the side of her face, caressing her. “Please, honey…” Grace leaned forward in instinctual response to the need in his tone. She took him further than he’d allowed her previously, sucking him completely clean, treasuring the sensation and taste of him…this man she’d always loved to the exclusion of all others. “God, Grace…” he muttered, fully satiated, but also touched and amazingly aroused again by her actions. 159
Tricked Truths After he’d withdrawn and regained a small measure of equilibrium, he leaned over and retrieved her towel, using it to wipe her mouth. Neither of them spoke but their awareness of each other was full, swelling with unspoken words and unexpressed, forbidden feelings. Grace closed her eyes to hide her emotions when he tossed aside the towel. So many secrets. “Grace.” Her eyelids flew open. “Don’t keep yourself from me. Not now.” Tears shimmered in her eyes where before there had only been desire. Trick didn’t like that. He didn’t like it a bit. Grace gasped when he reached around him and the blunt end of his forefinger found her molten entry. He pushed ruthlessly, but his finger slid completely friction free to the limit. His hand palmed her entire outer sex in a proprietary gesture. “Christ, you’re soaking,” he muttered in stunned arousal, potently excited despite his recent orgasm by the evidence of her enormous desire. His cock swelled between her pale breasts. “You like being tied up like this, don’t you?” His finger sliced hard into her clinging heat when she didn’t immediately respond. “Yes,” she cried out wildly. His eyes narrowed when he saw her reaction. Jesus, she was about to come from having his finger dip into her. He withdrew, trailing her thick oils out to where he palmed her spread thigh. His finger played in the abundant lubrication on her smooth skin, letting her know with actions that he was fully aware just how aroused she was, daring her to deny it…daring her to deny him. “And what about being force-fed my cock? Did you like that, Grace?” he queried in a low, intimate voice. 160
Tricked Truths She licked at her lower lip nervously, tasting his essence. Some biological imperative that was increasingly difficult for her to ignore demanded that she lift her hips and seek out his elusive hand. She’d been a hairsbreadth away from climaxing when he’d penetrated her with his finger. “Yes,” she whispered shakily. Trick’s mouth thinned with tension. It was one thing to see the evidence of her arousal, but it was a powerful aphrodisiac to hear her speak it. Grace’s breathing came in fast, uneven pants as Trick came down over her on his hands and knees. His chest and abdomen moved in a much slower, steadier rhythm than her own as he breathed. His sex hung between their bodies, not as heavy as he’d been moments before, but still full and potent. She shivered despite the heat when he speared her with his gleaming blue eyes. “How easy do you think it would be to make you come right now, Grace?” “Trick…please,” she whimpered. “I’m not trying to be cruel,” he assured her as he leaned close, bringing their faces only inches apart. Her eyes rolled back in her head at the sensation of the smooth, slightly damp head of his cock skimming against her belly. “If you’re as on edge as I think you are, it shouldn’t be that hard,” he said almost conversationally as his face lowered. His nostrils flared as he inhaled the smell of sweat, sex and Grace. “Do you think you could come if I just sucked on one of your pretty nipples?” Grace’s pussy clenched painfully at the suggestion. Her clit twanged with an acute sexual ache. “I…I don’t know, Trick.” “Have you ever had an orgasm that way?” She just rolled her head from side to side on the dock as she panted. 161
Tricked Truths Trick studied her flushed face closely. He came back further on his haunches until he hovered over her delectable, tender breasts. They rose and fell rapidly with her breath. “That’s how I’m going to make you come, then. God knows your nipples are more than sensitive enough,” he said almost to himself. Given the build-up, Grace assumed he was going to tease her more…draw out her torture. But instead, his powerful arm muscles flexed, holding him off of her as his head dipped lightning quick. He fastened on her left breast and sucked her with hotmouthed greed. Grace screamed at the abrupt stimulation on her hypersensitive nipples. When her back arched off the dock, Trick placed one hand beneath her, pushing her further into his mouth. He drew on her tautly for an indeterminable moment of tension until he sensed she was about to fall over the cresting wave of climax. Then he laved her nipple with his raspy, warm tongue, coasting her along the peak of climax until she groaned in wild desperation. His subsequent suckle was slower, sweeter than his former one had been, but it tipped her over the edge like an abrupt swat that hurled her into a sea of mind-melting pleasure. Grace choked and her orgasm snapped up once again to a full explosion when Trick moved with breathtaking rapidity and placed his open mouth between her spread thighs. His jaw flexed rhythmically. She screamed for him again, full-throated and raw. Grace seemed to watch as if from a distance as he parted her labia with his fingers, then moved his strong tongue in a flagrantly sexual, lascivious manner against her clit, all the while spearing her with his hot stare. Her body arched up desperately against him as fresh waves of climax pounded into her. The leather bonds drew her as tight as a bowstring drawn to its furthest limits by a sure, strong man. 162
Tricked Truths Her breath broke into her conscious awareness, sounding like waves pounding a beach. She blinked several times when she opened her eyes. An enormous shadow hung in her vision, blocking the evening sunlight. Slowly, her brain became capable of discerning subtleties. Her breath caught when she recognized the tense, hard cast to Trick’s features. “Nobody comes like that.” Her lips opened to tell him that only he could make her come like that but he lowered and took her mouth in an uncompromisingly hard kiss, silencing her. Trick speared her delicious mouth with his tongue in the manner he longed to lance into her liquid hot pussy with his cock. The fact that he’d agreed to deprive himself rankled at that moment, and not just at his aroused body, but at his spirit. He ended up giving way for Grace far too often and that angered him. The realization hardened his resolve to take her in a way that proved once and for all that she would deny him nothing. Grace’s eyes widened when he reached up and made quick work of the knotted reins on her wrists and then on her ankles. “Turn over on your hands and knees. Here, put the towel beneath you.” He watched as she did what he told her. “Now lower your breasts down onto the towel. You can rest your head on the dock. Arms out,” he said tensely because the sight of her pale, plump ass sticking up in the air turned him up to full-throttle arousal. Grace felt like she couldn’t inhale a full breath as he retied her arms to the dock. She groaned when he placed his hand on an ass cheek and rubbed and kneaded the flesh in a possessive gesture. It wasn’t as if she was entirely shocked when he leaned over, reached into his jeans pocket, and retrieved a tube of lubricant from it. Still, she felt her level of arousal as well as anxiety mount several degrees. 163
Tricked Truths Trick saw one eye widen when she saw what he held in his hand. “That’s right, honey. I’m going to fuck your ass.” The sound of rushing blood pounded in her ears. It had excited her when Trick had penetrated her ass with his finger. This would be exponentially more intimate. But she found herself craving it…needing the sensation of his body fused with her own. He came between her legs and opened the tube of lubricant. Grace didn’t think she could stand the anticipation much more when she heard the cap snap open and then a tense silence while he must have been lubing his cock. She wondered if Trick noticed it because his finger came up to spread the fresh juices across her clit. She moaned loudly at the unexpected caress. It felt wonderful, creating an immediate hot friction in her. She felt him press a cool finger to her asshole and tensed. “Relax, Grace. Don’t make it hard on yourself,” he coaxed. “That’s it,” Trick muttered a second later as his thick forefinger penetrated her tiny, pink hole to the knuckle. He grunted at the sensation of her tight channel. God, this was going to feel good. Grace had never felt so exposed and vulnerable as she knelt there with her arms bound and Trick’s finger sliding in and out of her ass while he diddled her clit, making her burn like a thousand suns. Her mouth opened wide and she gasped when he squeezed another finger into her and began to fuck her with an increased tempo. Trick carefully gauged her arousal level as he readied her. When he felt her start to crest he withdrew his fingers and massaged her hungry clit with a hard pressure. He pressed the tip of his lubricated cock to her asshole while she trembled and moaned in climax. He gritted his teeth when the head of his cock slipped into the tight ring of her rectum. Heat penetrated him. He felt her start at the invasion and pinched her clit lightly and rhythmically, kicking up her climax again. When he could take the exquisite torture no 164
Tricked Truths more he held both of her ass cheeks captive in his hands and began to pump his hips, taking her slowly. He groaned gutturally at the pleasure, drowning out Grace’s cry of dawning wonder. It admittedly hurt to have something as large as Trick’s cock in her ass but the pain was quickly fading as her body became accustomed to him. Just when she thought it was gone for good, he would push more his of thick penis into her, and the pain would mingle with the pleasure all over again. Her fingernails dug into the palms of her bound hands. It felt sublime to have him inside her. Trick sank himself in her to the balls. God, she’s a fantasy fuck. Sweat rolled down his neck and coated his belly at the sexual restraint he had used in taking her luscious ass slowly. “Are you ready for me to fuck you?” he asked after a tense moment while he watched her catch her breath. “Yes…please,” she said. “My pleasure,” Trick assured her as he withdrew from her until only the head of his dick was inside her ass. He made the return trip just as slowly, gauging the reaction on Grace’s face. When her cheek flushed with blood and he heard the groan of disbelieving pleasure that vibrated her throat, he began to pump her harder and faster. She took him better than any woman he’d ever had, giving him a smooth, tight ride and bucking her bottom in a perfect rhythm to meet his driving cock. “Oh my God,” Grace moaned helplessly. He plundered her deeply and wholly now, leaving no room inside her mind or body for anything but him. He ruled her utterly in those tense, fierce moments. Any walls that she’d erected to block him out were smashed to dust by his battering cock. Trick’s expression took on a fixed focus as he watched himself plunge between her round cheeks again and again. Their pace became frantic, his pelvis and balls slapping wildly against her ass on 165
Tricked Truths his demanding down strokes. He wished he could fuck her like this forever. But at the same time, it was going to be so sweet to finally come inside of her. It was a mistake for him to think of it. He growled low in his throat as he lifted her hips off the dock and served her ass to his cock. Seconds later, he roared as climax pounded him. “Oh..oh…oh!” Grace called out in aroused surprise at the shocking feeling of his cock pulsing in orgasm inside her. The moment was so rife with sexual tension that it tipped her over into her own release. “Ah…ah…ah…yes!” she shouted as Trick continued to pump her furiously through both of their climaxes. He fell over her, catching himself with his hands on the dock, utterly slain by the experience. Everything had gone black while he climaxed. He’d existed in a vacuum of mindless pleasure and release. It felt like he’d come for an eternity. Of course, the fact that he’d checked out of reality for a moment while he existed in his own private sexual nirvana might not have been such a wonderful thing for Grace. He opened his eyes and studied her for a moment. She still panted raggedly but there were no signs of discomfort on her face. He withdrew from her slowly. Grace sighed with relief when he unfastened the leather bands that restrained her wrists. It felt good to bring her arms down. It felt even better when Trick lay down next to her and cradled her in the crook of his elbow. They lay like that for several minutes while their erratic breathing calmed. “Are you all right?” he finally asked in a low voice. Grace nodded her head against his chest. “Yes. It felt…amazing.” Trick leaned back so that he could look into her face. “You give yourself so completely to me,” he muttered, his tone a strange mixture of puzzlement and awe. 166
Tricked Truths “Yes,” she whispered, her gaze unwavering. “Tell me why you came here, Grace.” She opened her mouth and closed it again before she sat up, forcing him to move backward. She worked the towel out from under her and covered herself with it. “You’ll never know how hard this is for me. I came back to Everly to see if it was possible…if it was right for me to tell you something very important.” He knelt before her, naked and beautiful and completely unaware of it. “Something about my father?” “I…yes, something about Evan.” “Something that Doug Grayson knows, too?” Her chin went up a fraction of an inch in defiance. She reached for her sandals and sundress. He grabbed her wrist, halting her attempts to leave. “Tell me your secrets, Grace. Tell me now or I might just tie you back up to this dock,” he said in an ominously soft voice. Her puffy, well-kissed lips fell open. She tilted her head slightly as she looked up at him. “Okay. I’ll tell you a secret that I’ve never told another soul in my life. I love you, Trick. I always have. You’re the only man I’ve ever loved.” His expression went rigid in disbelief. He slowly removed his hand from her wrist. “That’s the problem with asking someone you don’t trust for the truth, Trick,” Grace said as she stood. “You can’t believe them even when they finally confess it.”
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Chapter 11 “What is it?” The tension in Ava’s face and body immediately caught Trick’s attention when she came into the stables right after lunch a few days later—that, and the fact that Ava rarely wandered anywhere on the farm’s property besides the house, and more recently the Widow’s Cottage. “Buck just called. There’s a fire,” Ava said. Trick’s eyebrows drew together as he handed the lead harness that he’d been holding to Indigo. “Where?” he asked succinctly as he approached Ava. Her forehead bunched with worry. “Buck said they’ve contacted the entire volunteer department and that the commander will probably call in a second alarm for extra engines from Burley and Crawfordsville. It’s at the school, Trick, and it sounds like it’s a bad one.” She nodded her head when he started toward the stable doors, came up short and peered back at her when she’d finished speaking. “It’s at Pleasant Meadows,” she said. She watched anxiously from the doorway as he sprinted toward his truck. **** Grace’s fourth floor, not air-conditioned classroom felt even more unbearable than it had the stifling first week of school. The heat wave still hadn’t broken. Grace had been so on edge for the past few days—ever since that evening on the dock with Trick— 168
Tricked Truths that she felt like flying into the fray when she overheard Anderson Meeks, Jr. tell Randy during the Friday afternoon tutoring session that only dweebs were good at math. She took a deep breath and forced herself into her characteristic calm before she intervened. It turned out that she needn’t have worried, though. “Maybe so,” Randy replied in a steady, even tone. “But those dweebs are going to be the bosses of people who were lazy knowit-alls when they were little kids.” Randy didn’t react when Mark Jacobs and Jimmy Prince snorted with laughter despite Anderson’s ugly scowl at them. “Now, are you going to at least try and learn how to solve this problem or are you going to sulk?” Grace waited when she heard that taut challenge. She knew she should step in but she admittedly was curious as to how the increasingly unmanageable Anderson would react. “You’re going to find out that you’re not so smart and neither is your mommy. Just go ahead, loser,” Anderson taunted, a leer twisting his face. Anderson gave Blake Gustafson a smug glance. Randy took a deep breath. By the time he resumed solving the problem on a small eraser board, his temper seemed well under control. It seemed to help that Mark and Jimmy listened with an increased focus. Anderson glowered when he noticed. Grace gave a small shake of her head as she walked away to check on the next tutor-student group. Randy had handled that little incident with more aplomb and greater advantage to the student’s learning than she could have accomplished with her interference. It was so hot that the camisole she wore beneath her lightweight cotton blouse was not only damp under her arms, but between and below her breasts. It was no wonder the children’s tempers were on edge. She’d hardly slept for the past two nights and it wasn’t because of the heat. Ever since that explosive evening with Trick on the dock she’d felt like a woman tied beneath a gleaming blade that was 169
Tricked Truths slowly descending to eventually gauge at her flesh. She grimaced at her unconscious analogy. That’s what all this felt like for her—the emotional equivalent of torture Edgar Allen Poe-style. Her only choice was to watch as the blade of her fate swung closer and closer while she waited, immobilized by the conflicting pressures of her moral consciousness and the fear of losing someone she loved. The heat only stifled her further, making her feel even more trapped. She’d been avoiding Trick with careful, deliberate forethought. The fact that she’d been a hundred percent successful in her endeavor seemed only to build her state of nervous misery instead of relieving it. She sat down with a small tutoring group and let go of her worries for a full ten minutes as she listened to the tutor and praised the students for their efforts. She glanced up in surprise when a fire alarm sounded at a distance, like the second or third floor alarm instead of the one outside her classroom. Her brow wrinkled in confusion. The fourth floor alarm must be out of order. “Line up at the door, please.” Her eyes skimmed the jostling group of students and the classroom. “No talking. You know what to do. Last person out of the room shut the door, please.” “Anderson, please get in line,” she said sharply when the child remained sitting at a table, a small smile on his lips. Anderson slowly rose and fell into place behind Randy. His most faithful sidekick Blake Gustafson left the line and joined him at the end. He whispered something and Anderson’s grin widened before he threw a pointed glance at Grace. She blinked, sure she must have imagined the look of contempt on Anderson’s face. Third graders didn’t know enough about the world to hate another human being to that degree, did they? 170
Tricked Truths “Randy? Would you mind standing behind them, please?” she asked, broadcasting a message of apology with her gaze. She thought about how much she loved him when Randy just rolled his eyes with exasperation before he took the last place in the line. “Okay, you know the routine. We go to the north stairs and file down on the left-hand side. Remember, Mrs. Hoffitt’s class has the right-hand side. Never lose sight of the person in front of you. Are we ready?” Grace called out calmly as she moved to the door. They’d practiced the drill on three different occasions during the first week of school and her class had mastered it after the second. “Go ahead, then,” she said with a smile and a nod to Jenny Traeger, one of Randy’s hyperresponsible seventh grade classmates. She caught Melanie Hoffitt’s eye as she came out of her classroom across the hall. Grace got along well enough with her coworker. Melanie was a middle-aged woman with three children in high school and an almost constant expression of harassment on her round face. She may not be the most pleasant person to be around, but she’d never once given Grace a hard time about her past in Everly, and Grace appreciated that. “Something wrong with our alarm?” Melanie muttered under her breath when they drew near. Grace shrugged. “I guess that’s why it’s good to have drills, so we can find this stuff out.” “Great timing,” Melanie complained. “We’ll probably melt in the stairwell with this heat,” Grace agreed. A shiver never failed to course through Grace in the future when she recalled that flippant comment. “You take the rear and I’ll take the lead?” Grace suggested. Melanie sighed wearily, but nodded in agreement. It happened so quickly that Grace didn’t have the opportunity to be surprised. Jenny Traeger reached the metal door that led to 171
Tricked Truths the stairs two seconds before Grace did. Jenny pushed on the handle and cried out in sharp pain. Thick, blistering smoke poured into the hallway with a rapidity that shocked Grace. A few angry flames accompanied it. The billowing smoke reminded her of a striking serpent as it surged into virgin territory, greedy for its life-giving oxygen. Those at the front of the line initially reared back at the painful, scorching impact of the heat, but Jenny Traeger, who had received the brunt of it, fell heavily to her knees, choking. The metal door stuck and the smoke continued to billow into the hallway. The children began coughing and several began screaming in panic. “Get back! Further. Move back to Mrs. Hoffitt!” Grace shouted, pushing several small bodies with her hand. She dropped to her knees instinctively, trying to avoid the hottest part of the fire. The buttons of her blouse fell like scattered pebbles on the floor as she ripped it open and raised the fabric to cover her face. Holding her breath, she lunged for the door and pulled it shut. Jenny was already eclipsed by the black smoke when Grace practically tackled her on the backward movement. At least Jenny was gasping for air by the time Grace rolled off her. The toxic smoke began to thin now that its source had been cut off but it was still too thick for her to make out the features of several children who stood further down the hallway. “Grace?” Melanie called out in high-pitched panic as she ran past the kids. “Oh my God, are you two all right?” she asked when she saw the soot on Jenny’s reddened face and Grace’s blackened blouse and camisole. Grace glanced down uncertainly at Jenny, who still coughed harshly but at a slightly less intense rate. And at least she was breathing. “Yes. Get the children down the south stairs. I’ll help Jenny down.” Melanie immediately followed her advice, seeming glad to have someone guide her in this stressful situation. She rounded up 172
Tricked Truths the children in the front of the two lines and pushed them ahead of her. As Grace slowly and laboriously helped Jenny down the south stairs, she heard feet rushing up in the opposite direction. Two firemen wearing black turnouts with neon green stripes and helmets circled the banister at a run. One of them immediately lifted Jenny into his arms before he raced her down the stairs. The other one tried to lift Grace, as well. “I’m okay,” Grace muttered. “I can walk.” She blinked when she looked through the visor on the helmet. “Buck?” “Grace?” He flipped back the visor. “Are you sure you’re okay?” “I’m fine,” she assured him. Nevertheless, he grabbed her hand as they went down the final flight of stairs together. Grace could hear wailing sirens as more engines arrived. “My kids? Melanie Hoffitt was with them? They’re okay?” “From what we could see, everyone’s fine. Melanie told us you were behind her. You and the girl were the only ones who look like you had any contact with the fire.” “The north stairs were an inferno,” Grace said dazedly. She blinked in the hazy sunlight when they stepped outside. It must be shock, but everything looked strangely surreal. “I thought it was a drill.” “It’s no drill,” Buck said. “Fire is pouring out of the bulkheads on the northwest side of the building as well as the third and fourth floor windows and apparently the alarms weren’t working cor—” He paused when the two way radio at his utility belt broke with static. “All units report. Some kids are trapped in a light shaft between the school and the new gym. Michaels and Burnett are up on the roof. They’ll need support for the rescue operation.”
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Tricked Truths “This is what I was dreading. Better check and make sure all your kids are present and accounted for, Grace,” Buck said grimly before he walked away. “Wait, Buck. Trick’s up there?” She hitched her chin at the roof of the burning school. He nodded once. “Go and check on your kids, Grace.” She glanced up at the black smoke and fire now pouring from the venting on the roof and felt the first prickles of panic her previous shock had kept at bay. Nevertheless, she did exactly what Buck had suggested. She made her way over to the parking lot where police were beginning to cordon off the schoolyard to all but official personal. Given the number of emergency vehicles and fire trucks already there and the fact that no one came out of the school behind her, Grace realized she had been one of the last people out of the building. The fire alarms must have been working for a good part of the school. Hundreds of pale-faced children and tense Pleasant Meadows employees were watching the scene unfold before them. Adelaide Rorrick stood just feet away. The elderly secretary looked frightened as she glanced down at the soot on Grace’s blouse. Melanie ran over to Grace when she saw her approach. “Melanie, there’re some kids still trapped in there. Is anyone missing?” “What? Oh, my God…I was hoping they were around here somewhere. She kept saying they weren’t here and we’ve been looking…” “Who?” Grace asked as she put a hand on Melanie’s shoulder, trying to calm her near hysteria. “Anderson Meeks’s little boy and Blake Gustafson and...” She swallowed heavily when she met Grace’s eyes. “Some of the kids said Randy was with them but I haven’t been able to find him either, Grace.” 174
Tricked Truths Grace scanned the crowd anxiously for her son. Her overstressed brain couldn’t quite interpret the image of Layla Edwards strutting up to her and Melanie. She had the random, illogical thought that the woman seemed to have dressed up for the event of the Pleasant Meadow’s fire in Italian leather shoes and an elegant ivory suit. “Every other teacher got all of their students out of there safely. I knew it was a mistake to hire you.” Melanie gasped at Layla’s venom but Grace was too preoccupied to be angry. Layla’s gleaming green eyes narrowed before Grace turned and walked away in the opposite direction. “Grace, wait! I don’t think you’re supposed to…” Melanie’s voice trailed off weakly as Grace crouched under the yellow barrier tape and ran full-out toward the engines on the north side of the building. An Everly police officer shouted at her but Grace ignored him. “…I don’t think they want people in there,” Melanie finished to herself in a whisper. Layla Edward’s hard, smug voice snapped her out of her daze. “Nobody wants that woman anywhere in Everly. Period. Now she’s going to have no choice than to get the hell out of town.” **** Buck Flynn turned when he heard a woman shout his name. His brow wrinkled in confusion at what he saw. “Let go of her, for God’s sake, Charlie. Does this woman look like a criminal to you?” he asked with a mixture of good-old-boy amiability and exasperation as he approached. “She doesn’t have to look like a criminal to be breaking the law,” Charlie Helton said sanctimoniously. “This area is off limits.” Grace Jamison looked like she was about to tear off Charlie’s head, which Buck doubted would assist her in her cause. “Look at her, Charlie, she was in the fire.” 175
Tricked Truths Charlie just blinked when his gaze lowered over Grace’s chest. “So?” he finally asked, still staring. Buck gently took Grace’s arm and pulled her aside. “The EMTs are over here, Charlie,” Buck said like he was talking to an intellectually challenged child. Charlie looked like he was about to argue but the sheriff called out his name from where he stood by a bevy of police cars. Charlie gave Grace a frustrated frown before he stalked away on his short legs. “Runt,” Buck muttered under his breath as he watched Charlie’s retreating back. “Is that Randy up there?” Grace demanded shakily. Buck hesitated only for a second. He knew what he would want if one of his kids was up there. “Yeah, Grace. Trick’s been talking to him from up on the roof.” He face collapsed. “Oh my God. Are Anderson and Blake with him?” Buck nodded. “We’re not sure how they got in that location to begin with, but one thing’s for sure. Randy got them out of the janitor’s office they were blocked in with no exit by making those panicked kids crawl through a shaft. They’re at an opened vent now on the west side of the building. Problem is it’s the part of the school where the new gym was built two years ago. The space between the buildings won’t allow for a truck so we can’t use the aerial ladder.” “How will Trick be able to get Randy, then?” Grace asked. “Rope rescue,” Buck said, not bothering to comment on the fact that she’d made the assumption that it would be Trick who went over the edge because she’d been correct in her guess. He also didn’t tell her how tight things were for Greg Michaels and Trick up on the roof. Michaels had just reported that the fire had spread to the area behind Trick’s lowering point, leaving Michaels few options for substantial objects to brace against while he sup176
Tricked Truths ported Trick and eventually the boys. They’d had to settle for having Michaels lie flat on his back while his feet were braced against the parapet. Trick had been preparing to go over the edge when Buck had heard Grace call his name. The latest information Trick and Michaels had been feeding them from their surveillance of the condition on the roof indicated that Michaels was only likely going to have time to anchor one rope rescue. The pumpers saturated the area close to their location, staving off the fire. Crews hadn’t gotten to the source beneath them, however, and probably never would. The fire was just too hot at this point to do much more than contain it. The pumps were giving the rescue team extra seconds when they needed extra minutes. “Come on,” he said as he led her toward where the commander and two other firefighters were standing as they avidly watched the rescue operation occurring four stories up. Buck become aware of Grace’s escalated breathing when the figure at the top of the roof lowered down over the edge. “If anyone can do it, Trick can,” Buck tried to reassure her in a low voice. “I don’t know if he’s ever told you, but he’s got a shitload of firefighting experience working on all those oil rigs for so many years.” Grace didn’t respond. She’d gone totally still when she saw the head that had suddenly poked out of an opening seven or eight feet below Trick. She instantly recognized it as Randy’s. Dread weighted her chest, making her feel like a giant had just stomped on her heart. When Trick finally lowered to Randy and the two other boys’ location, the tension among the group of firefighters became palpable. The first small child came out of the shaft into Trick’s arms, his hands clinging around Trick’s neck desperately. A few of the men exhaled. A couple more did so when Trick reached out with 177
Tricked Truths the other hand and Randy’s arms transferred what looked like Anderson to him. Grace’s lungs just burned as she waited. “That’s it. Bring them down, Burnett,” a man on the ground said into a two-way radio. Grace surged forward abruptly but Buck had been prepared for this. He stopped her with a hand at her shoulder. “Randy? What about Randy?” Grace shouted, wild-eyed. “Holy shit,” one of the firemen muttered incredulously. Randy leaned out of the vent at a frightening angle. Trick couldn’t help him because his arms held the two other children. Maybe it was Grace’s imagination but she could almost hear Trick talking to Randy in a calm voice, telling him exactly what to do. Grace struggled to free herself from Buck’s hold, but he only held her tighter with the other hand. They all watched, spellbound, as Randy reached up under Anderson and Blake’s legs and hugged Trick’s waist. When the majority of the weight of his body suddenly spilled out of the window, making the rope and all four bodies suspended on it swing ominously four stories off the ground, Grace broke free of Buck’s restraint, tripping on something as she hurled into the crowd of transfixed firefighters. She hit the ground so hard her teeth rattled but her eyes never strayed from the sight of her entire life hanging precariously off balance in the empty air. “Get ’em down!” Grace heard someone roar as if she were hearing it through a thick pillow. “Flynn? Do ya mind?” The same voice asked a second later irritably. Grace never acknowledged Buck as he helped her up at the commander’s request. Every inch that the cluster of human bodies lowered to the ground felt like the most crucial victory of her life. A violent tremor of relief shuddered through Grace’s body when Trick lowered past the first floor windows. She strained for178
Tricked Truths ward in Buck’s hold as the EMTs and two firemen reached up and Randy slid into their arms safely. “Let them check him out first. He might be injured,” Buck said softly. Grace exhaled raggedly when Trick’s feet touched solid ground. The firemen began applauding loudly even as the commander tautly informed Greg Michaels to get off the roof. “That’s his brother?” Grace dimly heard one of the men say. “Yeah.” “Damn, you can tell it. Most grown men don’t have the nerve to come out of a window like that when a firefighter is holding him in a death grip but that kid flew like he was superman, knowing all along nothing was going to be able to hold him on the drop but his own strength.” “Yeah, he’s a Burnett all right.” Both men laughed with the exuberance of an enormous emotional stress being abruptly lifted before the commander barked an order for them to shut up. Grace inhaled air into her burning lungs when she saw Randy standing on his own two feet. He shook his head when one of the medical professionals asked him a question. Trick handed over the two younger children to the EMTs who walked quickly with them over to the ambulance. After Trick unhooked himself from the harness he, Randy, and an escort of two firemen finally began to walk out of the six foot tunnel between the buildings. Instead of trying to break free of Buck’s hands violently as she had earlier, Grace flexed her shoulders in a subtle movement. Buck lifted his hands. Nobody stopped her as she ran across the schoolyard. “Mom!” Randy called out when he saw her. Grace crushed him in her arms.
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Tricked Truths “Thank God. Are you all right?” she asked shakily as she leaned back to inspect him. Her eyes widened when she saw the blood on his arm. Trick paused in relating his story about the conditions on the roof to the other firefighters when he noticed Grace. “I’m fine, Mom. I just scraped myself on Trick’s utility belt on the way down. Did you see it? Wasn’t that awesome? Trick told me that he knew I could do it because he’d seen how strong I was plenty of times. It was pretty easy, too, but my chest and arms are burning now from squeezing so hard,” Randy said as he stuck a hand in his armpit and grimaced. Grace’s chest and throat were too full of emotion to respond so she just hugged him again tightly. Her eyes opened and she met Trick’s stare over Randy’s shoulder. He’d taken off his helmet. His hair was damp with sweat and there was a smear of soot on his cheek. His turnout gear made him look even more physically imposing than he already was. Grace wondered dazedly if other people could see the mantle of a hero that had always seemed to grace his shoulders as easily as she did. She slowly extricated herself from Randy’s arms, her gaze never leaving Trick. Trick’s breath stuck in his throat when she came toward him with a fierce, blazing expression on her face. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him to her with just as much wild intensity as she had Randy. His arms came up to surround her just as surely. “Thank you,” she said whispered fervently when she finally leaned back. He smiled down at her. “Are you all right?” she demanded. “My eyebrows might be a little singed but it looks like you could say the same.” He swallowed as he reached up and touched his thumb to the lacy edge of her camisole that had been blackened. 180
Tricked Truths He hadn’t realized she’d been in contact with the fire. He felt uncharacteristically helpless at the evidence that she’d been in danger and he hadn’t been there to help her. “Are you all right?” She nodded impatiently. “What is it?” Trick asked with growing puzzlement. He couldn’t put a name to the intense emotions on her face even though he told himself it was likely just shock. Without answering, she pressed her hands against the back of his neck and pulled him down for a hard, swift kiss. His amazement dissipated immediately as her taste permeated his awareness. He almost pulled her back for a more satisfying kiss, Randy and the observance of half of Everly be damned, but she spoke. “I’m ready to tell you what I came here to tell you,” she said rapidly. She backed out of his arms, finally tearing her gaze from him before she turned. She took Randy by his uninjured arm and led him over to the ambulance.
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Chapter 12 When the weather finally broke that night, it seemed like the gray clouds released a year’s ration of rain in two hours. It caused flooding on the rural routes and hundreds of wet basements, but nobody in Everly complained because it also helped the firemen’s cause. When Trick pulled into West End’s driveway at one in the morning, the rain still came down in a steady pour. He saw Grace’s figure at the screen door of the Widow’s Cottage. A dim light glowed in the living room behind her. She looked wispy…ethereal. Trick just watched her for several seconds before he shut off the engine. He thought of the way she’d felt in his arms earlier. He’d heard about her part in saving the Traeger girl’s life—and who knew how many subsequent others as a result. By now, it was a well-established fact in Trick’s mind that Grace’s delicate appearance disguised an indomitable inner strength. “It’s finally out,” he said in a weary voice when she held open the door for him. “I know. I heard on the news,” she said softly. “Do you want a glass of iced tea?” Trick sighed and fell heavily onto the couch. “Just some water, maybe.” His eyelids were closed when she entered the room silently but he opened them when she drew near. “Randy sleeping?” Trick asked without moving his head off the back of the couch. 182
Tricked Truths Grace nodded and handed him the glass. “He said he was going to wait up for you. I was going to let him. He was so wired when he got home.” Trick nodded slowly. “That’s how it is. The adrenaline pumps you up but when it’s gone it leaves you with one hell of a hangover.” He took a sip of the water. “I guess he told you how the three of them ended up being separated from the group?” “Yes. I can’t believe it. Do you think it’s true?” Trick heard the waver in her voice and set down his glass. He’d needed to feel her in his arms again every second since she’d walked away earlier. The thought of her being so close to the fire…so close to injury or death kept haunting him. She didn’t resist when he pulled her down into his lap. He pressed his face to her neck and inhaled her familiar scent, letting it calm him. He clenched his eyes shut tightly when he felt her fingers furrow through his hair and she cradled his head in her palm. What was he going to do with Grace? The only thing he knew for certain at this point was that that he couldn’t go on without her. He inhaled deeply in an attempt to regain his fragile control and lifted his head. “It’s true all right,” he said, his chaotic feelings making his voice gruff. “Anderson and Blake’s confessions matched each other’s perfectly. Those kids may have been convinced that they hated Randy, but after what happened today they’ll worship the ground he walks on. They spilled everything. The police will be out tomorrow to take statements from Randy and you. The early word from the fire investigators is that it was definitely arson. Royal Gustafson confessed to doing it not half an hour ago at the Everly Police Department. He claims he had nothing to do with sabotaging the fire alarms, but I’m having a very hard time swallowing that…just like the police are.” Grace just shook her head in partial disbelief. She’d been even more shocked earlier when Randy had relayed to her on the way 183
Tricked Truths home how he’d ended up in that shaft with Blake Gustafson and Anderson Meeks, Jr. Blake and Anderson had kept lingering behind the other children as they clamored down the south stairway that afternoon in a semi-panic. Randy had sensed that they were up to something so he stuck to them like glue, especially since Melanie was preoccupied with leading the kids down the south stairs. Even when the two children made a sudden move and dashed off into the third floor hallway he had followed, undeterred by Anderson’s insults and insistence that Randy just leave them alone. “I’ll never forgive myself for telling Randy to get behind those two this afternoon,” Grace said as she sagged down on the couch next to Trick. “If you hadn’t they’d be dead right now. They both may be a pain in the ass but they’re still just—” “Children. I know,” Grace finished for him. Her shoulders slumped with exhaustion. “But Blake’s brother isn’t. I can’t believe it. How could Royal knowingly put two children in so much danger?” Trick grunted with irritation. “Royal Gustafson is a hotheaded imbecile. The fire wasn’t supposed to get that out of control. He told his brother to hide out with his friend in that janitor’s office until everyone was out of the building. The idea was to—” “To make me look bad, like I was an incompetent teacher who couldn’t care for her children during an emergency,” Grace said quietly as she stared down into her lap. “It wasn’t Royal who masterminded the whole thing, Grace.” Grace’s head came up. “What?” Trick frowned bitterly. “Royal claimed it was Layla Edwards who set him up to it. She was the one who told him the layout of the school and decided where Royal should set the fire. Adelaide Rorrick and Melanie Hoffitt verified his story. They said that Layla was there at the scene before it was even possible for her to have 184
Tricked Truths heard about the fire and that she was demanding to know specifically where Anderson and Blake were before it was obvious that they were missing.” Trick rolled his eyes in bitter disgust. “That woman never did have an ounce of restraint. Apparently she was the one who goaded Royal and his friends into vandalizing the Widow’s Cottage, as well. She’ll more than likely serve some jail time along with Royal.” Grace gasped in shock. A shiver of alarm went down Trick’s spine when she started to choke with disbelieving laughter at the same time tears fell from her eyes. “Grace, what the hell’s wrong?” he asked in rising concern as he leaned toward her. The stress of the day had obviously come crashing down on her. “She put her own flesh and blood at risk,” Grace said hysterically. Every trace of exhaustion vanished from Trick in a second when he placed his hands on Grace’s shoulders and felt her shaking and the amount of tension in her muscles. Christ, she was about to fly apart into a million pieces. “What are you talking about, honey?” he asked slowly. “Layla Edwards is Randy’s birth mother.” Tears coursed steadily out of her eyes when she met Trick’s puzzled stare. “That was what I decided I was going to tell you. That’s why I came back to Everly. You’re not Randy’s brother. You’re his father, Trick,” Grace whispered brokenly. **** Over an hour later Grace finally rose from the couch. Her throat was hoarse from talking. Trick looked gray from fatigue, lingering shock and what she suspected was a simmering anger that might tip over to a boil at any given second. 185
Tricked Truths She glanced dully out of the newly installed window pane. Well, it was out now. There was nothing she could do to take it back. Fear filled her but so did relief. Ever since she’d seen Trick and Randy suspended in the air so far off the ground and recognized, just as the two firemen had, how much they were alike—not just in appearance, but in spirit—Grace knew what she had to do. Still, her heart seemed to shrink in her chest when she considered how tenderly Trick had held her earlier. Then he’d learned the truth and all of his tenderness had been burned away by shock and fury. If she considered the unfairness of the fact that Trick would never be hers one more time, Grace thought she might go mad. If their being together had been unlikely before, it was a certainty now. She forced herself to focus on the mundane details of her surroundings so her grief didn’t bring her to her knees. “The rain has finally stopped,” she said softly. “Why did you and Evan have to adopt? Why didn’t you just have a kid of your own?” Trick demanded, indifferent to her exhaustion as well as his own. It had been like that since she’d told him that Randy was his son—or that she suspected very strongly that he was, anyway. He’d fired off question after question, always wanting more. Her eyes burned when she closed her eyes. She’d told him almost everything. How Evan had noticed immediately after the first few months of their marriage how lonely she was. He’d kept her hidden away at West End from prying eyes and wagging tongues. Just the rumor of her existence had apparently been sufficient to fulfill Evan’s needs. Grace hadn’t minded the solitude, however. She’d been wounded since she was a child by the pettiness of Everly’s citizens and took comfort in socializing only with Evan and occasionally Gran and Kenny.
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Tricked Truths Despite her reassurances to the contrary, however, Evan continued to express concern about her largely solitary existence. He suggested that they have a child. She’d explained to Trick how he’d contacted an adoption agency in both Indianapolis and Crawfordsville and filled out the applications on his own, regardless of Grace’s protests and insistence that she didn’t think it was the right decision for them at that time. But Evan’s manic enthusiasm could have the quality of bulldozer, as everyone close to him well knew. He would plow through anything to get what he wanted once he’d made up his mind about something. So although Grace had immediately fallen in love with the baby boy Evan had brought home one cool autumn day, she’d had next to nothing to do with the adoption process itself. She strongly suspected that Evan had bribed any number of employees in order to acquire Randy. Her attempts at getting records from the agency in the weeks before she’d returned to Everly had been fruitless, however, and Grace began to wonder if they were even still in existence. For all she knew, the whole affair had been transacted under the table and there weren’t any records left to be discovered. She wouldn’t put it past Evan and she knew Trick felt the same way. Evan Burnett had a long history of forcing circumstances to fit his needs and desires. Strangely enough, though, Grace still believed to this day that Evan’s original intentions truly had been for her own benefit. Evan had cared for her…in his way. But somewhere along the line, Evan must have discovered that the perfect child had been born in Trenton County for him to adopt as his own—the accidental child sired by his own rebellious progeny. Maybe Evan thought that if he’d failed in keeping his own son under his thumb, he’d have a second chance with his grandson. Grace sighed heavily at Trick’s latest question. “Evan wasn’t able to father a child anymore,” she finally answered. “Was he too old or what?” he asked tautly. 187
Tricked Truths She hesitated. “Yes.” She turned away from the window after several moments, surprised that he hadn’t spoken. His eyes burned like white-hot coals as he regarded her, belying his exhaustion. “Do you really expect me to believe that you didn’t know I was Randy’s father until a few months ago?” “I didn’t say it to try and convince you. I said it because I believe it’s the truth, and if it is, then you have a right to know.” She blinked heavily to clear unwanted tears and glanced away from his accusing stare. “All you have to do is look at him to know it’s the truth. Ever since he’s reached adolescence it’s starting to become more and more obvious how much the two of you look alike. And that’s not all. He has your…way,” she finished in a quavering voice. She hadn’t had the opportunity yet to tell him yet how Kenny’s revelation in the last days before his death had confirmed what had already been a growing suspicion for her. “Were you planning on telling Layla, too?” “No!” Grace shouted, all signs of fatigue gone in a split second. “She gave Randy up for adoption to the agency in Crawfordsville voluntarily and married her current husband two months afterwards. That part of the record I do have from Evan. She isn’t his mother, Trick. How can you even suggest that I tell her after what she pulled tonight?” Trick lunged off the couch, his chaotic emotions ignited by her anger. “I wasn’t saying that I think we should tell her, but here’s what I want to know, Grace. Who died and made you God? Who are you to be deciding what’s best for Randy?” “I’m his mother!” she hissed. In the tense seconds that followed they were evenly matched adversaries, regardless of size or brute strength. “What’s going on?” 188
Tricked Truths Both of them started before they turned toward the hallway where Randy stood. Grace became unfrozen from her shock first. “I’m sorry, honey. I…we didn’t mean to wake you,” Grace said as she walked across the room toward him. “Are you all right?” Randy yawned deeply but he returned his mother’s hug with more strength than his usual one-armed squeeze. “I’m okay. Hey, Trick. Everything okay?” Grace turned in time to see the expression on Trick’s face. He looked uncharacteristically floored as he stared at Randy. “Yeah, great,” he said after a moment. He shifted on his feet. “Just tired. I should get to bed.” “Wait.” Randy left Grace’s embrace and started after Trick as he headed for the front door. “Yeah?” Trick asked uncertainly when he turned around to face Randy. “I didn’t get a chance to say thanks. You saved my life up there.” The boy and the man just stared at each other for a stretched moment. Trick started to shrug off the thanks, but then his arms came up. He clasped Randy to him. “You’re a brave kid, you know that?” Trick muttered gruffly a moment later after he’d released Randy. Grace blinked back tears when she heard the restrained emotion in Trick’s voice. Randy just grinned. “Must run in the family, huh, Trick?”
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Chapter 13 Grace’s gaze skipped over to Trick nervously the next day after the police had left and he remained, sipping coffee on the Widow’s Cottage front porch. He’d showered away all the grit and grime from last night and had dressed with the usual insouciant disregard that only maximized his potent sexuality. He had been perfectly polite to her all morning, but Grace could feel the tension in him. She wanted to demand that he tell her what he planned to do with the volatile information she’d given him last night but she couldn’t with the police and Randy there. But the police had been gone now for several minutes and Ava had just taken Randy into Crawfordsville for lunch and an afternoon matinee. Now that she could ask him what he planned to do about Randy, she found that she was too afraid to hear his answer. “Here’s what I don’t get,” Trick said quietly after they’d both watched Ava’s sedan pull out of the driveway. “How can you say that you just recently realized that I was Randy’s father when Doug Grayson said that Evan had been paying you all those years to keep the secret?” He studied Grace closely in the seconds that followed. He noticed how her gray eyes widened ever so slightly and then the manner that she tugged at her lower lip with her small white teeth. Despite his anger at her and his emotional unrest in regard to finding out that he had a son, the recalled sensation of what her front teeth felt gently scraping his cock surged into his mind in graphic detail. 190
Tricked Truths “Evan made a stipulation in his will that Kenny’s medical bills be taken care of for as long as he was alive. He arranged it through Doug Grayson.” “That’s not an explanation, Grace. I specifically heard Doug Grayson say that he would cut off the money if you revealed Evan’s secret.” “I don’t receive that money anymore, Trick,” she said anxiously as she stood and moved away from him. “I told you, it was for Kenny. I stopped receiving it when he died.” Trick rose off the steps and went after her. “So you were lying last night when you said that you just recently realized I was probably Randy’s father,” he accused. “You agreed to keep me ignorant of the fact that I’ve had a son for thirteen years so that you could have Evan’s money.” “No,” Grace insisted. “I’m telling you the truth, Trick. Kenny said something innocently about you being Randy’s real father just a few days before he died. It got me wondering if your father hadn’t really told him the truth about Randy once a long time ago. Evan never made it a secret as to who Randy’s birth mother was, but he always insisted that Layla had denied knowing who the father was.” She shook her head, frustrated that she didn’t possess more of the details behind Randy’s birth. “Still, there was always something smug about his manner when he talked about Randy’s birth parents…something knowing, like he’d pulled over a good one. Evan must have let the secret slip once with Kenny and then thought that Kenny was too dumb to remember it. I just found out recently from Randy that Kenny had said something similar to what he said to me years ago, when Randy was little.” “Why would Evan bring it up to Kenny?” Trick asked skeptically. 191
Tricked Truths Grace shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. I’d find them talking sometimes. You know how high-strung Evan was. Kenny seemed to calm him. For all I know, Kenny might have been the one to matter-of-factly say that you were Randy’s real dad and Evan just agreed with it out of shock. Kenny was like that sometimes. He could see truths when other people couldn’t. He was…special.” She turned away, trying to get herself under control. “I had a medical scare myself a few weeks after Kenny died. You know that…that…scar on my breast?” “Yes,” he replied warily. “It was a benign growth. Everything was fine, it was just that—” “What?” Trick asked, not entirely aware that he’d reached out to grab her upper arm. “It made me realize how alone Randy would be…you know, if anything ever happened to me,” she said softly. His grip on her tightened. “Are you sure you’re okay?” “Yes. I’m perfectly healthy, but it just made what Kenny said more…imperative. There were things in West Bend that I had to arrange before we could leave, and I had to have a job to support us…” Her gray eyes met his pleadingly. “But we came as soon as we could, Trick.” “I hate secrets,” he stated flatly. “I think Randy should be told the truth.” Grace’s swallowed to moisten the dryness in her mouth. “I suppose you’re right.” “You’re afraid that I’ll try and take him from you, aren’t you?” Grace blinked at his stark question. “I…I suppose I am, yes.” His hand came up to the side of her neck and his thumb tilted her chin until she met his eyes. “I would never do anything to hurt Randy just to spite you. He just lost your brother and your grandmother. I would never even consider taking away the most impor192
Tricked Truths tant person in his life in addition to all that. I want to be a part of his life. I want to be a father to him. But that doesn’t mean that you won’t always be his mother.” She closed her eyes as a tide of emotion swept through her. Despite his stormy feelings, Trick couldn’t help but be moved by the profound relief on her face. “Now that we’ve settled that, are you ready to admit that you knew all these years that Randy was my son?” Her gaze seemed to implore him. “Please, Trick. Believe me. That’s not true.” Trick just stared at her for several moments. “Then tell me what secret you’re keeping from me with Doug Grayson.” “I can’t,” she whispered. His face stiffened at her inadvertent admission that she was definitely keeping something else from him—something other than the fact that Randy was his son. He’d pay a good portion of his life savings to someone if they could tell him why it infuriated him so much when he knew that Grace withheld things from him…when she withheld herself by keeping secrets. His fingers flexed around the slender column of her throat. “You’re going to tell me, Grace.” She shook her head and turned into the house. She paused warily a few seconds later as she went down the hallway when she heard front door open and close. Her chin went over her shoulder when she heard the almost ominous sound of the lock clicking. “Back into the bedroom, Grace,” Trick said softly. Her eyes went wide with anxiety. It shamed her that her pussy flooded with liquid heat at the same moment. “No, Trick. No. I’m not going to tell you.” “I’m not going to argue about it right now,” he said as he came toward her. “Let’s go, Grace.” Her jaw came unhinged and then snapped shut again. She gave him one last wary look before she started down the hallway. 193
Tricked Truths “Take off all of your clothes,” Trick said once he’d followed her into the room and shut the door behind him. “Trick, you’re not going to succeed in making me tell you anything. This is ridiculous!” Grace prevaricated. “Maybe so,” he granted as he began to unbuckle his belt slowly. “But whether you tell me your secret or not, I’m going to have you. Now…take off your clothes.” Her eyes were drawn to his fingers as he unfastened the fly of his jeans. The sight made her tissues flood with rushing, hot blood. It took her a second to realize that her trembling fingers were already unbuttoning her blouse. Her body seemed to have a will of its own when it came to Trick. She knew she shouldn’t give in to him like this…especially with what was at stake. Her brain said to resist him, but her body and her heart silenced all logic. When Trick saw how her hands shook as she unfastened the cotton blouse, he frowned before he went to her. Neither of them spoke as he gently drew aside her arms and resumed undressing her where she’d left off. Her bra joined her blouse on the back of a chair, then her belt. The gentle, cherishing quality to his touch on her calves and thighs when he straightened after pulling her jeans off her legs made tears swell in her eyes. His hand came up to cradle her head. “Why? Why do you resist me?” “Is that what you really think?” she whispered. “I give myself to you every time you touch me, every time you look at me. I’ve always been yours for the taking, Trick.” “You’re not every man’s for the taking, Grace? What’s between us is special?” he asked intently. “Yes.” “Then tell me your secret. Tell me what you’ve been keeping from me with Doug Grayson about my father.” “I can’t,” she said in a choking voice. 194
Tricked Truths His mouth thinned at that. “You’ve always been an enigma to me,” he muttered gruffly as his thumb dried several tears from her cheek. “You say that you’re not resisting me…even that you love me,” he added hesitantly. His blue eyes flashed as they met hers. “But then you withhold a part of yourself, don’t you?” Grace just shook her head slowly. “No more so than you withhold yourself from me. You want to make an even trade, is that it? My secret for your trust?” Several more tears spilled over and tumbled onto her cheek. “But it doesn’t work that way. The secret that I hold isn’t mine to give. You’ll either trust me or you won’t, Trick, but it won’t be because I bartered for it.” “Why should I trust you?” “You’ve grown to know me. You need to be the one decide. I’ve never done anything to earn your mistrust.” “What about keeping the fact that Randy was my son from me? What about the fact that we were this close to making love weeks before you married my father?” he asked hotly. “I’ve told you the truth about Randy. And as for the latter, I apologized to you for that, as well. I regretted it. I hated the fact that I wanted you so much that I forgot about Kenny and the bargain that I’d made with Evan for his medical care,” she responded just as heatedly. “Fine,” Trick said harshly. “You want to know why I can’t trust you? It’s because your infidelities led to my father’s murder.” A thick, potent silence followed. “I’ve never done anything to earn your mistrust, Trick. Never,” she repeated in a low, barely controlled voice. She shivered when he just continued to pin her with his hot stare. The subtle movement brought his eyes downward over her nude body, fixing on the slight tremble in her breasts. When his gaze returned to her face there was a wildness to his expression that almost made Grace step back. 195
Tricked Truths “You betrayed me,” Trick whispered harshly, speaking the truth of what lay at the core of his fury out loud for the first time. Grace swallowed heavily, recognizing the thick emotion that accompanied his admission. “I betrayed Kenny on that day I was with you, as well, Trick. Kenny needed my help.” “Fine. Understood. But Kenny’s not here now. Neither is Evan,” he said as he stepped closer to her and their bodies ghosted one another’s. “The only person you’d be betraying by not giving yourself completely now, Grace, is yourself.” She just looked up at him with those solemn, soft gray eyes. God, he’d do anything to see her laugh more. Trick floundered in a swirling haze of discordant, powerful emotions. He pulled her to him roughly. His kiss branded her, forcing her flesh to accept what he believed her spirit resisted. His hands rose to fully submerse themselves in the sensation of her silky skin and feminine curves, touching her back, hips, buttocks, and thighs, sliding, caressing, squeezing. Grace moaned shakily into his mouth. He felt so hot next to her, like he was literally radiating his vibrant life force…his desire. She melted into it even as she strained toward it. It struck her dazedly that he’d been right. Evan’s secret was his, but her soul and her body were her own. And both of them had always been kept in reserve for this man who held her now, burning her alive with his touch. Her hands suddenly had a life of their own as they rose to his shirt, practically tearing off the buttons in her desperation. Trick felt her pull back in their embrace so that she could remove his shirt from his jeans, but he wouldn’t budge in the strength with which he held her to him. Grace just plunged her hands into the opening of his shirt instead, hungry for the sensation of his smooth skin beneath her fingertips. 196
Tricked Truths She outlined his ribs and burrowed her fingers into the crinkly hair on his chest. She pressed and massaged the dense, unyielding muscle. She found a nipple and rubbed and flicked and teased the sensitive, erect disk until his tense growl vibrated from his flesh to hers. He pressed his cock into her belly, then spread his hands wide across both ass cheeks and lifted. They moaned in unison at the sensation of his penis pressing into her open, damp pussy. She wrapped her legs around his waist, drawing him against her in a tight, greedy embrace. God, yes. Trick thrust against her soft mound. This was what he needed…what he required. He walked toward the bed, never lifting his ravening mouth from her sweetness, still cupping her ass greedily, never ceasing the firm, pulsing pressure of his cock against her spread pussy and womanly soft belly. When he bent and laid her on the bed, she wouldn’t release him from her strong grip around his waist. She strained up when he tried to lift from their intoxicating kiss. “Grace…” he whispered roughly. “Let me…up…just for a…” He paused when he fully took in the sight of her. She craned toward him desperately, her lips damp, red, and swollen from his kisses, her cheeks stained with color from her arousal, her eyes dark and stormy with desire. Her lovely, pinked-tipped breasts trembled delicately as she panted. She put a hand behind his head to bring him back down but he was already on his way. He’d never seen a more arousing sight in his life. He bent to send his tongue deeply between her lips again, pillaging and defiling one moment, sucking, rubbing, and cherishing the next. He filled his palm with her breast and toyed with the pebbled peak until she arched up off the bed, crying into his mouth. Grace let him leave her then only because she needed his talented tongue to soothe her nipple, which it certainly did before he 197
Tricked Truths proceeded to administer an alternative form of erotic torture, drawing on the tips hungrily. She gripped his head to her desperately even as she pressed her pussy against the delineated pillar of his cock. Trick heard her whimpered plea and forced himself to rise so he could undress. He never took his eyes off her as he attacked his clothing. How could it be possible for her to look so innocent and thoroughly wanton at once? An artist could easily choose her as a model for the Madonna with her creamy skin, liquid soft eyes and full, pink lips. But he’d be damned if those same lips weren’t fashioned to be plundered by his tongue and stretched around his cock. And her flushed breasts were way too full and thrusting to make a proper picture of innocence, the nipples too erect and pouting for his touch. Her long hair could be ruled into demure smoothness or fall like a mussed, soft golden cloud around her heart-shaped face, as it did right now. Certainly her legs were too shapely and long to make a man think of anything more than having them wrapped around him during the most carnal of embraces, and the last thing that came to Trick’s mind was innocence when he stared fixedly at the pink, swollen, glossy lips that peeked at him through downy, light-brown pubic hair. Once he’d kicked off his jeans impatiently he bent and placed his hands on her thighs. She moved of her own volition, spreading herself for him at the same time he pushed her wide. For a suspended moment, he just speared into her with his gaze. There was suddenly no doubt in his mind. He would go mad if he didn’t bury himself in the center of those flushed, juicy petals. He didn’t care if his father had been there before him. He didn’t care if every fucking dick in Everly had. Because Grace was his. 198
Tricked Truths Her nostrils flared when he told her so. Grace watched him, entranced as he took his heavy erection into his right hand and put his knees on the bed next to her. Their eyes remained locked even as their bodies moved, instinctively positioning themselves to mate. He placed the tip of his cock at her entry, grimacing in pleasure at the sensation. When he thrust into her body, hard and without compromise, her gaze widened, fixing on something that wasn’t in this world. She’d just learned a harsh truth with his swift possession. She had been lying to herself to think she could ever keep a part of herself separate from him. With him embedded deeply inside of her, forcing her flesh to make way for his, she knew firsthand the undeniable truth that she was…and perhaps always had been, completely his. Trick made a strangled, stunned sound as his forehead fell to the bed. Grace’s eyes were on him when he finally lifted his head. His expression was tense and manifold, conveying a strange brew of emotions, disbelief, sorrow…awe. But then the strong flame of desire flared into his blue eyes. He withdrew and thrust again, as though to assure himself that it really did feel this good. Her pussy squeezed and pulled at him like a hot, tight fist. He felt himself falling into her, like he was being sucked into her essence. He gave himself then, just as surely as she’d just given herself. “Grace…” he muttered between clenched teeth even as his hips pumped, savoring her sweetness. He knew he couldn’t have stopped himself if he tried, so he gave up on attempting it. His eyelids squeezed shut at the indescribable pleasure. Her fingertips lightly skimmed his face, touched by his expression that so closely resembled the torment of pain. His cock seemingly cleaved her, but it was an invasion she welcomed. She lifted her hips to match his hard thrusts, gasping in awe as the sting in her delicate tissues segued to a tingling burn. 199
Tricked Truths The pressure he built with each stroke escalated with an almost alarming intensity. The bed groaned and protested beneath their forceful, focused mating. She glanced down between their bodies, fascinated by the sight of his thick stalk driving into her body, his heavy testicles swinging forward at the quick acceleration until they landed against her delicate tissues. The brisk slap of flesh against her pussy only added to the burn. Trick lost himself in her. The only thing that existed was the clasping, brutal pleasure, the need to pump harder and deeper, the mandate to relish in the discovery of secret treasure. He put his feet back on the floor and lifted her hips to him, adding the strength of his flexing arm muscles to that of his powerful legs and glutes. The new angle and relentless pressure acted like a smart bomb on her clit. Grace threw her head back and she gave a strangled cry of shocked pleasure at his second lancing thrust, orgasm convulsing her entire body. She wasn’t sure if she came again after a prolonged, ecstatic moment, or if the continued pounding pleasure of his fucking cock just kept her tumbling endlessly in wave after wave of climax. She opened her eyes several moments later and stared in awe. Every muscle in his beautiful body was flexed seemingly at the tightest point of tension. His golden brown skin glistened with sweat. His blue eyes blazed at her as he drove her pussy down over his cock even as he pumped his hips forward, creating a hard, staccato rhythm that ended and started anew with every brisk smack of their flesh. Grace clearly saw the moment when he could no longer bear the tension and the coils of his restraint sprang free. Trick slid his cock all the way into her and pressed even harder, wishing he could squeeze more of his flesh into her. In his final moment before he plunged over into bliss, he vibrated her clit with the ridge of his forefinger, insisting she take the ride with him. 200
Tricked Truths Grace joined him without conscious thought, her body igniting into orgasm at his touch with a primitive, abrupt jolt of pleasure. When her sharp cries and his fierce grunts that were choreographed with the thrusts of his body finally waned, only their gasping breath interrupted the silence of the still room. Soon, that surrendered to the quiet as well. Trick blinked the sweat out of his eyes and raised his head. He was still standing next to the bed and bending over Grace’s raised body. He didn’t miss the way she flinched slightly when he withdrew his cock from her. He slowly, warily met her stare. His mouth fell open but no words would come to him. He’d insisted on the truth. He’d barraged her with his demands, blackmailed her, enticed her until she’d finally given him what he wanted. But as Trick now knew all too perfectly, the victory was bittersweet when the truth had been forced.
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Chapter 14 Doug Grayson felt the hairs prickle on the back of his neck when Trick Burnett met his stare as he opened the door to his office. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, Trick?” he asked with a smooth urbanity that covered his sudden uncertainty. When Trick didn’t answer immediately, but just sank down heavily into one of the supple leather chairs that faced his large mahogany desk, Doug continued evenly. “I’ve heard about your heroics at the school from just about everyone in Everly over the past few days. Evan would be proud of you, son.” Trick gave a humorless bark of laughter. “More likely he would have told me that if I stuck my neck out too often it just might get separated from my body one of these times,” Trick said baldly. He rolled his unshaved jaw to release some of the tension he’d been harboring all night and morning…ever since he’d left Grace lying alone in her bedroom yesterday, unable to meet her solemn, gray-eyed stare. He couldn’t avoid things forever though, which is why he’d come to see Doug today about what would be involved in having Randy established as his son, legally anyway. The actual father and son relationship itself would be a much more challenging and complicated undertaking. “Grace told me the truth about what Evan did. You can stop talking about him like he was a saint. It always bugged the hell out 202
Tricked Truths of me when you did that before, but I can tell you here and now, I won’t sit for it. Not anymore, Doug.” For a few seconds, the older man just stared, clearly shocked. It wasn’t until he came around and sat in his desk chair that Trick actually noticed that his complexion had gone gray. “Evan never wanted you to know, Trick. I told him on plenty of occasions that I thought he was wrong not to trust you enough to tell you. In truth, I thought for sure that…” “You thought what?” Trick demanded when Evan just faded off. Doug shook his head as if to clear it. “I didn’t think you were such a judgmental man. Your father was fastidious about keeping that aspect of his life private. He couldn’t keep it secret from your mother…or Grace, of course. But few others knew. Evan was always sensitive about the issue but he was hypersensitive when it came to you. I think he believed that since you were so involved with sports and obviously so…well, you know…masculine…and so forth.” He waved his hand in vague discomfort. “He often mentioned your mother, too. He knew how loyal you were to her, and… Doug started to shrug again when he abruptly noticed that Trick was up and towering him from the other side of his desk. “What the hell are you talking about?” Trick asked slowly. Doug’s mouth fell open. “What were you talking about?” he asked. “The fact that Randy is my son.” Doug paled. Trick shook his head slowly in dawning comprehension. “Jesus, you were talking about something completely different, weren’t you?” “I thought…when you said Grace had told you the secret, I thought you meant…when I spoke of…Randy is your son? I don’t understand.” 203
Tricked Truths Trick recognized genuine surprise when he saw it. “Yeah, he’s my son. But forget about that for right now, Doug.” He leaned down over the desk in until he could see eye to eye with his father’s old friend. “Right now, you and I are going to focus on that other little secret. Don’t shit a brick, Doug. I think I’m getting the gist of it anyway. And if it’s what I’m beginning to suspect it is, you better have a damned good reason other than my father’s reputation to have made Grace the one to suffer for it all this time.” **** Trick stormed into the Widow’s Cottage like a tornado. “Christ, I’m glad to see you. Ava called my cell to tell me that you left with a suitcase. I only came back to switch cars and ask Randy for more details about where you lived in South Bend so that I could…Why are you still here, Grace?” She stared at him, aghast at his pressured speech and strange behavior. “I forgot my keys to the house in South Bend,” she replied sincerely, too shocked to do otherwise. “I was just going to get away for a couple of days, with school being temporarily off because of the fire and all. Ava said that she would watch Randy and I thought it would give you more time with him. Trick, you seem upset. What’s wrong?” “What’s wrong?” he asked in a strangled voice. Ava had obviously told him a lie of omission. His old friend had done it to get him to confront Grace and of course she’d been right on target with her little underhanded maneuver. Trick honestly didn’t even think the volatile information that he’d learned this afternoon from Doug was more alarming then the idea of Grace packing a suitcase and leaving West End. “How can you even ask what’s wrong after what happened yesterday?” he asked hotly. Her face smoothed out into an unreadable mask at his outburst in order to hide her unrest. “You mean…you mean when you left 204
Tricked Truths after we…” She blinked once and forced herself to meet his eyes. “Made love?” He gripped her shoulders. “Listen to me. I know I’d deserve it if you did if you never spoke another word to me. Trust me, Grace—I know. After the way I’ve been treating you and…” he grimaced as though the thought caused him physical pain, “what I did to you yesterday afternoon. But you at least deserve to know how sorry I am. “I’ve thought about practically nothing else since I left you yesterday. I planned to tell you I was sorry when I came home this evening—to ask you if I could start over. I never had a right to judge you for sleeping with another man while you were married to my father. That’s what I wanted to say, Grace, even yesterday. I acted like I was so mad because you’d been unfaithful to Evan, but all along I felt like it had really been me you’d been unfaithful to, me you’d betrayed by willingly marrying my father and becoming involved with other men.” “Really?” Grace asked in amazement. She was utterly confused by half of what he’d blurted out upon arriving at her door, but those last few sentences were clear enough. Trick’s expression pulled tight at the disbelief in her tone. Her shock at being told that he cared about her almost caused him more pain then the memory of the times he’d treated her so callously. “Yes. God, yes.” He swallowed hard as he stared at her soft-eyed beauty, suddenly gone mute while before he’d been ready to explode with words. His hand shook slightly as it came up to cradle her head in what had become a customary caress. His thumb stretched to whisk tenderly across her cheekbone. As it had hundreds of time before it struck him how soft her skin was, so smooth—all of those times and he’d never told her… “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Every time I look at you I feel like I’ve been sucker punched in the gut. Don’t 205
Tricked Truths you know how hard I fell for you that day by the lake thirteen years ago?” Grace just stared for a few seconds. Then she laughed abruptly. Had she fallen and hit her head while she was looking for the South Bend house keys? Because this must be a dream. “No,” she said honestly after a moment. “I thought you were a lusty young man doing what a lot of young men would have done in similar circumstances. Later, I thought you hated me for being responsible for your father’s death.” “You weren’t responsible for his death, honey. I know that. I think I even knew it when you came back. I was just looking for an excuse to lash back at you…yes, for the circumstances of Evan’s death, but also for the fact that I wanted you and I couldn’t have you. I wished I could hate you. I think I even convinced a part of myself that I did. But the truth was the exact opposite. Why do you think I was acting so crazy?” “I thought it was because you despised me and that it royally pissed you off that I’d moved into the Widow’s Cottage. I thought that once you found out about Randy, you’d only inevitably hate me even more for keeping the secret from you that you had a son,” Grace said. She swiped at the tears that spilled down her cheek with her hand. “I knew that you wanted me, too—in bed. I thought your lust was just a convenient avenue for you to expend your frustration onto me…” “I did want to hurt you, Grace. Not physically. I think I wanted to get back at you emotionally though…for causing me so much pain.” Trick cringed slightly at the ugly admission. “God, Grace, do you think that you could ever forgive me for that?” Grace swallowed heavily when she saw the expression on his face and heard the raw emotion in his voice. “Yes. I already had forgiven you. It didn’t surprise me, the way you felt about me. I understood why you were angry.” 206
Tricked Truths He shook his head. “Grace, haven’t you been listening? You don’t understand. I had no right to be angry at you believing that you had a lover, especially when you told me about the circumstances of your marriage to my father, about how you did it for Kenny’s sake. What a terrible situation for a seventeen-year-old girl to find herself in, to have to sacrifice her life…her future for another…” “I don’t regret it, Trick,” Grace said softly. “I know, honey. I know,” he whispered roughly into her hair when he finally took her fully into his arms. He held her to him tightly, his eyes pinched closed. It felt overwhelming to finally recognize how much he loved her…to acknowledge that he’d almost destroyed the most precious gift he’d ever been granted. “I’m only trying to tell you that I know how unfair I was being,” he continued after a moment. He turned his face into her hair and inhaled her unique scent, treasuring it in a way he’d never before allowed himself to do. “But I know the truth, now. I know there were never any lovers. I know that you were just made to be a scapegoat in Evan’s lies.” “Doug told you?” Grace asked, obviously amazed yet again. “Sort of,” Trick frowned. “What he didn’t tell me, I figured out for myself.” He pressed her body close again holding her gaze with his own. Her eyes had always been the windows to her soul. Why hadn’t he trusted what he saw there from the very beginning? What she said next took him slightly off-guard at its unexpectedness, but he was getting used to that quality in her as well. “Trick, I never felt like you defiled me or hurt me when you made love to me. Every time I thought it was beautiful…in its own way,” she whispered. His thumb traced the path of a tear. “Why’d you let me treat you like that?” 207
Tricked Truths Her arched eyebrows rose. “You mean besides the fact that I loved it every time? Are you saying you didn’t?” His eyes flashed with humor and desire. “Stupid question, Grace. Besides, that’s not what I meant.” She sighed. “The answer is simple, Trick. I wanted to give myself to you anyway that you wanted to have me. Growing up in this town, I used to feel so alone. I had Kenny and Gran, and they were wonderful. But the kids shunned me because my clothes were old and out of date and I looked funny and my best friend was my retarded brother. When you kissed me that day thirteen years ago…when you touched me, I felt like I belonged on this planet for the first time in my life. I knew what I was doing was wrong. I needed to help Kenny but I’d never felt anything so strong and powerful. I still can’t believe I had the strength to stop you. I used up all my reserve to resist you on that day, Trick. I didn’t have any left when it came to you. Whatever we did in regard to sex…whatever we do…is right because I love you.” Her eyes widened in wonder as realization struck. “I think some part of me must have always known that you cared about me. Because yesterday—maybe especially then—it didn’t feel like you were just using me to expend your lust and anger. It felt like making love,” she whispered. “I’ve known for a while that what I felt toward you was far more than lust and anger, Grace.” “Why did you leave me then?” she asked softly. “Because I was ashamed. I still am when I think of the way I took you so hard and… Christ, you’d never been with a man, had you? I couldn’t believe it at first, so I think I convinced myself that it must have been an illusion because you felt so incredibly good and I’d waited for so long to have you. But then…at the end…” His voice broke. “I’m sorry, Grace. My leaving yesterday didn’t have anything to do with some shortcoming on your part. I was just pissed off at myself.” 208
Tricked Truths “And confused, too, I can imagine,” she added in her low, melodious voice. “You got that straight. It seemed like everything I’d believed to be indisputable fact was a great big lie.” He saw the sadness that flickered across her face at that. His thumb swept her cheek softly, almost as if he wanted to physically chase that emotion away. “Why didn’t you just tell me that that Len Mallet was my father’s lover and not yours?” Her eyes burned when she closed them. He’d asked the question so evenly, so calmly. Evan had been wrong to think that Trick would judge him in regard to that aspect of his character. Trick may have gone through an adjustment process if he found out, like most people did. But in the end, Trick wouldn’t have held his father’s sexual preferences against him. Evan made those assumptions about his son because he himself hadn’t been blessed with the bone deep self-confidence that Trick possessed. He couldn’t comprehend that his own son could be that monumentally different than him in that respect…and so many others. A feeling of dread weighted Trick’s chest when he saw her haunted expression. “Was it because you loved Evan, Grace? Is that why you’ve been so faithful in keeping his secret all these years, even when people judged you…scorned you?” “No,” she whispered. “There was a time when I wanted to love him, more than anything. He was my husband and no matter how strange the circumstances of our marriage, I naively believed that we would eventually come to love one another. I tried to please him. I think I wanted him to love me. “It didn’t take all that long for me to realize that it was impossible for him to love me…for him to desire me. He did care about me, just as I came to care for him. He adopted Randy as much for me as for himself. Your father was a complicated man. But no…I never loved him,” she whispered. 209
Tricked Truths “Then why didn’t you just tell me?” he asked softly. “Aren’t I correct in believing that Evan made you sign some agreement with Doug as the intermediary that if you ever revealed the secret that he was gay to anyone—probably most especially to me or Randy— that he would cut off Kenny’s medical care?” “Yes, that was essentially the gist of it,” she said, avoiding his gaze. “But after Kenny died, you didn’t need to carry on that lie anymore. When you came here after finding out about Randy and me, why didn’t you just tell me the truth instead of letting me insult you all those times?” Trick asked incredulously. Her gray eyes finally met his. “I thought…I thought it might hurt you…to know.” Trick just stared for a long moment. He opened his mouth, closed it, and finally attempted to speak through the thick emotion that clogged his throat. “Are you saying that you endured all of my bad-mouthing and insults because you were worried that I’d be hurt by the truth?” He shook his head. “Grace, that’s…that’s crazy…that’s…Jesus. That’s just like you, isn’t it?” He said it with such a mixture of love and exasperation that Grace couldn’t help but laugh. When he heard the elusive sound he instinctively crushed her body to him. “What I don’t understand is why you and Len agreed to a cover up,” he said after a moment of savoring her preciousness. Grace closed her eyes over the frightening memory of Evan lying halfway across his bed as life gushed out of the wound on his chest. “Evan asked us to, Trick,” she said in a low murmur. “Right before he died. Len was in a panic when he realized what he’d done. He begged Evan for his forgiveness. Despite what he did, I believe that Len actually loved Evan. They’d been lovers for several years.” “Why’d Len shoot him then?” Trick asked bluntly. 210
Tricked Truths Her eyes skated away from his. Trick gently turned her chin with his hand until she met his gaze once again. “It sounds so sordid,” she whispered. “It was so sordid. You don’t want to know the details, Trick.” “I do,” Trick insisted. “I’m not the homophobic jerk that Evan and you must have thought I was.” “It was Evan who had the worst prejudices about gay men. I think that deep down, he hated himself. He was convinced that you would despise him if you ever found out.” Trick shook his head in amazement. “So instead, he contrived a million different reasons to make me resent him. That’s Evan’s logic for you.” He shook his head, lost in thought for a moment. No wonder the emotional atmosphere of West End when he’d been growing up had always felt so thick and volatile with secrets. Both his mother and father must have suffered, each in their own separate ways. “Grace?” “Yes?” she asked softly. “Why did Len shoot my father?” “The truth wasn’t so different than what Len confessed. He just switched around the names to keep Evan’s sexual orientation a secret.” She hesitated when she saw Trick puzzling out that piece of information. She licked at her lower lip nervously. “As I said, your father seemed to consider his homosexuality a weakness. If he could have found a way to become straight, I think he have done it in a second. He couldn’t become aroused enough to ever have intercourse with me, which frustrated him terribly. Maybe in your case—when he impregnated your mother, I mean,” she murmured, embarrassed, “maybe because he was younger and it was easier for him to…he could be with a woman in that way sometimes. Or maybe it was just me. I don’t know. “Even though he could never have intercourse with me,” Grace continued after a pause, “he sometimes would ask me to per211
Tricked Truths form oral sex on him. Sometimes it would…work for him. Usually it wouldn’t. But when he was able to get gratification from it, he was…happy for a period of time. It seemed to make him feel better about himself. “I wanted him to desire me. Not just because he was my husband…but because I wanted to be needed by someone else.” Her voice broke. Trick stroked her back soothingly. “I would allow myself to conveniently forget that he was likely imagining it was someone else stimulating him, like Len or—” “You used to wear your hair short,” Trick recalled sadly. “Evan liked it that way. It must have made the fantasy more realistic for him.” Trick grunted. “Well, it sure as hell explains how it is that a virgin knows how to suck cock like a—sorry, honey,” he apologized quickly when he saw her blush crimson. “I wanted to please him so much, even though I don’t think I ever really did,” she said miserably. “His loss is my gain,” Trick murmured with a small grin, trying to alleviate the heaviness of the moment for her. “I know I rarely complimented you on your lovemaking, but I’ll tell you right now that you’ve got a rare talent when it comes to giving head, Grace.” “Trick,” she scolded in a whisper, mortified that they were discussing this in the midst of such a serious conversation. “All right,” he consented with a small chuckle. He leaned down and kissed her forehead, trying to soothe her embarrassment. “I think I can imagine the rest.” “I figured you could,” Grace murmured wryly. “It was you and Evan who were fooling around and Len walked in on the two of you.” Grace just pressed her cheek to his chest. “It was awful. Your father had always told Len that ours was a marriage of convenience only—which was technically the truth. But on rare occasions, he 212
Tricked Truths would want me in that way.” She sighed heavily. “And that’s what Len walked in on us. He went crazy with jealousy and rage. We were in your father’s bedroom. Len must have known about the gun that Evan kept.” “And he shot my father and you agreed to go along with the deception of what actually happened that night?” Grace met his gaze beseechingly. “I cared for your father. It was his dying wish…and I still had Kenny to consider. Either way, Len agreed to confess to Evan’s murder. The person who committed the crime is paying for it.” Her voice broke. Trick stroked her jaw soothingly. “Your father’s reputation was saved which is what he was most concerned about. And you…” She paused. Trick’s soothing fingers paused. “What about me, honey?” Her eyes held an appeal when they met his. “Trick, I never accused you of homophobia in my mind. It’s just a lot for someone to take in, to find out that a parent is gay, and to know that they were murdered by their lover. I wanted to—” “Protect me?” he finished gently. He smiled, even though it made him incredibly heart sore to consider it. Here he was, all six foot four inches of big, strong man and this little slip of a soft-eyed, quiet-spoken woman felt like she needed to protect him from a town’s nasty gossip and narrow-mindedness. Grace bit her lower lip uncertainly. “It wasn’t just because of that, Trick. But yes, I thought of you. Who knows? You might have felt less at home in Everly after that. Then you would have never returned, started Midwestern Biofuel and offered this old dried up county the life it needed.” Trick just shook his head. “Right. It’s so much better that you should have been hounded out of Everly so that I could be comfortably clueless and a third of the citizens of Trenton County can have good jobs—the same folks, by the way, who made a habit out of looking down their noses at you. That all makes terrific sense, Grace.” 213
Tricked Truths She gave him a luminous smile that effectively wiped all traces of bitterness from his mind. “I was actually glad for the opportunity to return the favor.” “What favor?” Trick whispered roughly. Without a conscious decision to do so, his head dropped so that he could brush his lips against that mysterious smile. “For the day you saved Kenny’s life.” Trick went still when he saw the expression in her beautiful eyes. So much love seemed to pour forth from them that he experienced his blessing at that moment like a tangible gift. Her hands came up to caress his cheeks. “I fell in love with you that day, John Burnett. I’ve never stopped loving you since then,” she whispered. “And that’s the sweetest truth of all, Grace,” he said before his head lowered and he sealed his mouth to hers.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Beth Kery grew up in a huge house built in the nineteenth century where she cultivated her love of mystery and the paranormal. When she wasn’t hunting for secret passageways and ghosts with her friends, she was gobbling up fantasy novels and any other books she could get her hands on. As an adult she learned about the vast mysteries of romance and sex and started to investigate that phenomenon thoroughly, as well. Her writing today reflects her passion for all of the above. You may read more about Beth Kery, her books, and upcoming projects at www.bethkery.com. She would also love to hear from you at
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