Deceiving Lies

2

Kash

“RACH, I’M TIRED. Can we go to sleep?”

“Hmm?”

I looked over at the TV she seemed so transfixed on and smiled. She was such a fucking nerd. “Babe.”

“Yeah?”

“Bed. Now.”

Her laugh filled the living room, and her blue eyes flashed over to mine. “It’ll be over in a little bit, hold on.”

Uh, no. I had plans, and she was messing with them. I walked over to where she was lying on the couch and snatched the remote out of her hand to shut the TV off. When she sat up to grab it back, I pulled her close and over my shoulder before standing back up.

“Put me down! I wanted to finish watching that.”

“You’re recording it, it can wait until tomorrow.”

“But it’s Duck Dynasty,” she whined, and I could picture her frowning as I carried her through the hall.

“And it can wait.”

She slapped my ass as hard as she could, and I paid it right back. “Jerk! I don’t make you stop watching your shows.”

“But my shows are good.”

“Duck Dynasty is amazing!”

“Rach, you’ll live.” I put my hands on her waist and bent over as I pushed her off my shoulder and onto the bed. She jackknifed up and I crawled on top of her and pushed her right back down.

“You’re such an—” She cut off quickly and moaned when I gently bit down on her neck and brought her shoving hands above her head and pinned them to the bed.

Making a trail up her neck, I kissed her thoroughly and smiled when she leaned toward me as I backed up. “Such a what?”

“I don’t remember,” she said against my mouth and pressed our lips together again.

“That’s what I thought, Sour Patch.”

She growled but was still smiling when I moved both her wrists into one of my hands and let my right hand reach underneath the pillow until I hit what I was looking for. Her lips moved to my jaw and she wrapped her long legs around my back.

Tonight was already going completely differently from how I’d imagined it would, and when she did that, I was ready to put off what I’d planned to do. But I didn’t want to wait any longer—Rachel had been here a month, and though that wasn’t a long time, I knew she was more than ready for this again.

“Rachel.”

“Yeah?” she asked huskily and rolled her hips.

Shit, she’s not helping right now. Keeping her hands pinned to the bed, I sat back far enough that she had to unlock her legs, but stayed hovering over her.

“What—”

“I know I messed up before,” I began, cutting her off. “I’ll never regret asking you to be mine when I did, but I know I should have told you everything first.”

Her blue eyes went from narrowed to wide in a second when she realized what I was saying.

“I can’t begin to explain to you the physical pain I went through every day knowing that I’d ruined everything and lost you for good. I will never take you or your forgiveness for granted, and I swear I will never tell you another unforgivable lie.”

“Kash,” she whispered, and I watched as her eyes took me in.

“I want to take care of you, I want to protect you, I want to love you, and I want to fight with you for the rest of my life.”

She laughed softly and her mouth parted when her left hand clenched around the ring I’d just placed in her palm.

“Rachel, will you please marry me?”

“Yes!” She crushed her mouth to mine and I sat her body up and brought her closed left fist in between our bodies. She stopped kissing me when I coaxed her hand open and inhaled audibly when she saw the new ring.

“You’re not allowed to take this one off.”

“I won’t,” she promised as I slid it onto her ring finger, and before I could tell her that I loved her, she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me until we were both falling back onto the bed.

Her hands made quick work of pulling my shirt over my head then sliding down my torso ’til they hit the top of my workout shorts. She was wearing one of my shirts, and I used it to pull her body off the bed. I helped her out of it before tossing it behind me and helping her rid me of my shorts. My eyes took in her mostly naked body as I climbed back on top of her and bent to pull her nipple into my mouth. She groaned and her back arched off the bed as her hands fisted in my hair.

Leaning onto my forearm, I let my other hand trail down her stomach and slowly pulled her underwear off. The tips of my fingers traced the path back up her long legs, and when I hit her knees, I used the one hand to part her legs and continued my path up her thighs. She inhaled sharply and I smiled against her breast when my fingers teased her opening, and I fucking loved that she was ready for me and pulled my head even closer to her chest. I moved toward her other breast, and just before I reached it, she flipped us so I was on my back and brought her mouth down to mine as she straddled me. She guided me to her and I growled against her lips when she sank down on top of me and began rocking her hips.

Her lips moved to my ear, softly brushing against it as she said, “No teasing, and no frustration. Tonight, I just want you.”

She had me. Always.

Rachel

THE BACK OF MY THROAT BEGAN BURNING, and I blinked rapidly to stop the tears that were quickly forming as I looked at myself in the mirror. This was the one. I somehow knew that without a doubt, but something about all of this still felt incredibly wrong. Turning to smile at Kash’s mom, Marcy, and at Mason’s sister and mother, Maddie and Mrs. Gates, I noted their expressions and knew they agreed with my assessment. I was so thankful they were here for me today, but as I let the tips of my fingers trail down the soft white, ruched tulle, I couldn’t help but wish for someone completely different to be sitting in that chair.

My mom should have been here for this. She was supposed to be here for all of this.

In the three weeks since Kash had proposed for the third—and last—time, Marcy and I had been on a wedding planning kick that didn’t show signs of slowing down until we had every last detail in place. As part of that, we’d been dress shopping all morning. I’d put off looking for a dress for myself as we picked out the bridesmaids and mother dresses, but that only worked for so long before the three of them were shoving me into a room with a sales assistant who was getting all up close and personal with my body as she helped me into dress after dress.

After five misses, I found myself in this one. The one dress I didn’t want to even look at, but the assistant begged me to “just try.” I should have known the evil genius would try and succeed at making me cry.

The strapless dress flowed down to the ground in a sweep train, making me look ethereal, or like I belonged in ancient Greece. But my favorite part was the crisscross bodice that led to an empire waist, and I stared, transfixed, as my fingers trailed across the ruching. It was perfect, Kash would love it—and I knew if my mom were here, she would have loved it too. A few traitorous tears slipped down my cheeks and I made quick work of sweeping them away when the women all made sounds of admiration and sympathy as they saw them.

“You look stunning, Rachel,” Marcy choked out and began searching through her purse.

“I was going to ask how you feel in it, but it’s all over your face. You’re glowing,” Mrs. Gates added and rubbed Marcy’s shoulder when she started blotting her cheeks with a tissue she’d found in her purse.

Maddie stood up and walked over to me, turning my body so I was facing the mirrors again. “What if we did this,” she said mostly to herself as she loosened her hair from a clip, and began gathering up mine.

I watched as she made a messy—yet somehow styled—bun, low on the side of my neck and held it together with the now-hidden clip before stepping away. My next intake of breath was audible, and she smiled.

“Perfect.”

I couldn’t respond, but I agreed wholeheartedly. Bringing my hands up, I covered the majority of my face, not even bothering with the tears still slowly falling down my hands, and continued to stare at the transformed reflection in the mirror.

“What do you think? Is this the one?” the saleswoman asked softly, and I turned to smile at her.

“Yeah.” I stopped to clear my throat and shook my head as I gathered myself. “Yeah, it is. I love it.”

She did a happy clap reminding me so much of Candice, and I asked Maddie to grab my phone to take pictures so I could send them to Candice and her mom, Janet. After calls from a squealing Candice, and a crying Janet, I reluctantly went back to the dressing room to change into my clothes.

Once the dresses were bought, and an extra bridesmaid dress ordered for Candice to try on in Texas, the three of us went out for lunch and the wedding planning took off once again. We already had a venue, photographer, and food for June 28; and now that I had the dress, I felt like the rest would fall into place easily. But for the first time in these last three weeks, I wasn’t in the mood to plan. I wanted my mom to be here helping, and nothing was going to ease the ache of knowing she couldn’t.

“OH, MADDIE! You so shouldn’t have brought me here,” I whispered as I took in all the dogs whimpering and barking in their kennels at the shelter a few days later.

“Why?” She turned to look at me with worried eyes. “Are you afraid of dogs or something?”

“No, now I want to take one home with me!”

“Ha! They’re sweet, and looking at them like this just breaks your heart, doesn’t it?”

My eyes latched onto a skin-and-bones pitbull that looked like he was ready to cry. “That’s the understatement of the year. How do you work here and not take all of them home with you? I start bawling whenever I’m watching TV and I hear Sarah McLachlan start singing, because I know abused and depressed-looking animals are about to follow.”

Maddie threw her hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter as she led me through a maze of dogs. “Oh God, that’s so true! It’s like you can’t find the remote and change the channel fast enough!”

A dog so ugly he was cute smashed himself against the gate next to me, and in my mind I was hearing him beg me to take him home. “We need to go before I adopt all of them. Why did you bring me here?”

“I need to check on my babies. When I came in about a week ago, someone had abandoned a dog and her puppies at the door. Like, literally left her tied to the handle of the door, and the box of her puppies next to her. They just became available for adoption two days ago, and I hate not seeing them every day, and I just know they’ll all be gone by the time I come back in on Saturday.”

I want to take you home! And you, oh you’re really sad-looking, I need to stop looking at you. This is such a bad idea, I need to get out of— Oh, I want to take you too! “Maddie, I’m not joking, we need—”

“Aww, just you two left?”

My jaw dropped and I stopped walking. “Oh. My. Word.”

“Aren’t they precious?”

“I’m in puppy love,” I whispered as Maddie pulled a little golden retriever puppy out of a smaller kennel.

“This one is such a trip. I swear he’s the flirt of the bunch. Indifferent toward males, loves all females.”

I took him from her arms and about died in cute-heaven when he wrapped his big paws around my arm like he was hugging it. “You just know you’re cute so you use that to your advantage, don’t you?” I crooned at him, and snuggled him closer when he plopped his head on my chest. “Such a guy.”

Maddie laughed as she held the other one. “I’m sad they’re all going to be gone soon.”

“Why don’t you get one?”

“Right”—she snorted—“and pay the thousand-dollar pet deposit at my apartment? Um, no thank you.”

“One thousand dollars? Why? It was like, two-fifty at the place we were at in Texas!”

“I’d like to know the same thing, and I would have a monthly ‘pet rent.’ Isn’t that crazy?”

“So that’s how you work here and don’t adopt them. Got it.” I looked down and watched my little flirt gnawing on my thumb, and the second he realized I was looking at him, he tried to jump out of my arms and fully onto my chest. He has puppy breath! “Kash is going to be so pissed,” I murmured against his nose. “Maddie, I’m in love.”

“I know, they’re just so dang cute.”

“How much to adopt?”

She gasped and did a weird little dance while holding the other puppy. “Wait! Kash would be pissed!”

“I just told Trip that.”

“Who?”

I pointed at the puppy. “You said he was a trip, and I think it’s cute. So how much?”

“Oh, I love that! It’s only thirty-five dollars. But I really think that maybe you should wait, maybe talk to Kash first?”

“I told you I’m in love! I want him now.” Then I looked down at the pup and fake-whispered, “We just aren’t going to tell Daddy until he gets home.”

Maddie laughed and put the other puppy back in the kennel. “Shit, he’s going to be so mad!”

“Don’t care. In puppy love.”

“Whatever, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Got it, put all the blame on you.” Trip gave me little kisses, and I knew the fight coming my way was totally worth it.

Kash

THE SIGHT I WAS MET WITH IN THE KITCHEN was a dead giveaway. Rachel wanted something. She only voluntarily made pancakes when she wanted something, or was showing me her appreciation for something I’d done. And since I’d been gone for thirteen hours at work, I knew it wasn’t the latter.

“Hey, babe! How was work? I really missed you and I’m glad you’re home. You hungry? You were gone so long today; did you stay over? What time is it? Why don’t you go get comfortable and I’ll finish up here?”

What in the fuck? My eyes widened as she wrapped her arms around my neck. She was rambling, which means I had been wrong about both. She didn’t want something; she’d done something. “What’d you do?”

“What do you mean?”

“You suck at trying to act normal. And you’re making pancakes without me asking you to.” She just sat there with a plastered smile on her face, and I decided to push it more. “You’re really shitty at hiding things from me, you know that?”

“So how many do you want?”

“None. No, wait, that’s a lie. I want four. But who the fuck is this Barbie in my kitchen and what did she do with my Rachel? My Rachel would have snapped at me just then and told me to make pancakes myself.”

“I just wanted to do something—”

A crash from the back of the house sounded, and Rachel froze but didn’t look scared. I pulled out my gun from the holster and maneuvered out of her arms.

“No, Kash! Please put the gun away, I don’t want you to shoot or scare him!”

“Him? Who the fuck is in my house, Rachel?!” Without waiting for an answer, I stalked off down the hall and straight toward the shut bedroom door. This wasn’t fucking happening, she would never cheat on me. I knew she wouldn’t. Another loud noise sounded, and I swore I would kill the son of a bitch. Shoot first, ask questions after.

“Kash, wait!”

I flung open the door, and my eyes went to the perfectly made bed and lamp that had been knocked onto the floor. Before I could say anything, I heard a whine coming from the corner of the room and walked slowly toward it.

Huddled into the corner near the other nightstand was a puppy looking up at me like he knew exactly what he had done. Rachel was talking quickly, and I knew she was trying to explain why the dog was here, but I was just trying not to laugh. I holstered my gun and bent down to pick up the shaking puppy.

“. . . please don’t make me take him back!”

I turned and looked at my beautiful fiancée. I wanted to play with her so bad, but when she was giving me puppy-eyes about as good as the little shit in my arms could, all I could think about was giving her anything in the world that she asked for.

“Did you get him from the shelter where Maddie works?”

“Maybe.”

I nodded and scratched behind the pup’s ears. “And I’m guessing Maddie was with you?” When Rachel nodded, I continued, “Did she say anything to you about getting the puppy? Like maybe . . . don’t?”

“But I’m in puppy love with him! I wanted him so bad, I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad at me, I knew you would say no and I couldn’t stand the thought of letting him go to someone else!”

Coughing to cover my laugh, I let my eyes fall over her pleading expression and sucked hard on my lip ring so I wouldn’t smile. “Maddie feed you a story about the puppies being adopted quickly and she was afraid they’d all be gone by Saturday?”

“Wait, what? How did you know?”

“Because, woman I love whom I want to strangle sometimes, Maddie took you to the shelter to see which of the two puppies you liked best. They were officially adoptable, but they were holding both of them because I was going to get one for you.”

“You were?”

“Yeah, but obviously you jumped the gun on that one. So, uh, surprise . . . I guess?”

She squealed and launched herself at me, taking the puppy from my arms. “Thank you so much, I love him, you’re the best!”

I rolled my eyes and fell onto the bed. “What are we gonna name him?”

“Trip.” I knew from her tone there was no room for negotiating that, so I just smiled at her.

“All right, Trip it is. Are you going to make me pancakes now?”

“Make them yourself. I’ve been freaking out about your reaction all day, and I want to play with him now.”

And that was more like my Rachel.