Unfinished Hero 04 Deacon (23 page)

“Yes,” I answered.

“Eighty-five.”

I took in a deep breath and let it out
suggesting, “How about you pay for the groceries when we go to the
store?”

His brows snapped together in a way that I’d
never seen from him before.

It was a way that was a little scary.

“Are you shittin’ me?” he bit out.

“Uh…” I trailed off, thinking the answer to
that was yes, even when it was no.

“When I take another job, after it’s done, am
I comin’ back here?” he demanded to know.

“I hope so,” I replied.

“And when I take a job after that, where do
you want me to be when I’m done?”

His point was dawning on me.

“Here,” I answered.

“Here in cabin eleven, me payin’ to be there,
or here in this house with you?”

My tone softened. “Obviously here in this
house, honey.”

“Now, do you see where I’m comin’ from?” he
pushed.

“How about we go halfsies?” I suggested.

Deacon looked to the ceiling.

I took that as a no.

“It was just a suggestion,” I muttered.

He looked back to me. “You want diamonds and
pearls, you got it. You want to fly to Paris, I’ll have to swing a
passport, but I’ll do it and you got that too. You want anything
and I got it in me to give it to you, I’ll give it to you. But that
is not this. This is day-to-day, give and take, me takin’ care of
you, you takin’ care of me. I get you got it in you to take care of
yourself. You showed me that for six years. What you gotta get is
that, if we want this to work, you gotta budge on that and give me
my shot at doin’ it ’cause I’m the type of man who’s got that in me
in a way there
is
no other way I can be.”

His words made me feel warm and squishy, but
this conversation was too important to leave it at that.

“I can do that,” I allowed. “But there has to
be compromise.”

“Yeah, I suck at cooking mostly ’cause I hate
that shit. You’re fuckin’ great at it. You take that on, after
years of fast food, I’ll be eternally grateful and put up new
gutters on every fuckin’ cabin at Glacier Lily.”

“It seems I get more out of that than you
do.”

“Obviously you haven’t eaten garbage for ten
years.”

This was again intriguing.

And again, Deacon didn’t give more.

I didn’t push it.

I gave in.

“All right. You pay for the gutters but only
if you let me help you put them up and on the added condition that
if something like this ever comes up again, we have a discussion.
You don’t catapult me into the Badass Zone, take over, and make the
decisions for both of us.”

“The Badass Zone?”

“A zone you live in constantly. A zone I live
in when I’m with you. It becomes capitalized and I visit it when
you establish badass boundaries, so, FYI, it’s the zone we’re in
right now.”

A smile spread on his face even as his lips
ordered, “Here.”

“See?” I stated, lifting a hand to point at
his mouth. “Badass Zone.”

He crossed his arms on his chest.

“Just to say,” I continued, dropping my hand.
“I’m not only argumentative, I’m ornery and stubborn. If you want
to have a badass stand-off, I should warn you, as badass as you
are, there’s still a very good chance you’ll lose.”

I finished my declaration on a startled cry
because Deacon lunged, nabbed my hand, and stepped back, sending me
sailing into him. I was still dealing with colliding with his long,
hard frame when his arms wound around me and his mouth crushed down
on mine.

He kissed me with tongue and he did it
deep.

When he lifted his head, he murmured, “Funny,
feels like winning.”

And again, he was not wrong.

* * * * *

“Okay, Milagros,” I said into the phone. “See
you later.”

“
Hasta luego,
Cassidy,” she said back
then I heard her disconnect.

I put the phone down on the arm of my
Adirondack chair and tangled my feet with Deacon’s on the
railing.

Deacon didn’t object.

I fought the grin that caused and asked, “You
cool with dinner tomorrow at Milagros and Manuel’s?”

“Said I was when you asked me when you were
talkin’ to her,” Deacon noted.

“Yes, but I was talking to her when I asked,”
I replied. “Now’s your chance to get out while you can.”

“It’ll be good, Cassie.”

I had a feeling it would.

I also had a feeling it wouldn’t.

That was because everything with Deacon was
turning out good.

But Milagros and Manuel meant the world to me
and there was no way Deacon could sit at their table and be Deacon.
I knew this when he introduced himself as Priest.

And you didn’t lie to your friends.

Resolutely turning my mind from that to the
bright side, I was right, astoundingly right,
gleefully
right.

Working alongside your man was fun.

Okay, not fun but it was still awesome.

I knew this because I helped Deacon install
my gutters. It wasn’t done but we had three sides of the house
completed.

He didn’t talk while he worked, I didn’t
either, but working side by side getting something that needed done
done felt
great
.

“Warning,” he stated, taking me from my
thoughts. “There’ll come a time, and soon, when you’ll be entering
Badass Zone again. This being when I talk to you about the state of
your shingles.”

I grabbed my beer, brought it to my mouth,
and before taking a sip, murmured, “Noted.”

“You got leaks?” he asked.

“Not that I know of,” I answered.

“Miracle,” he muttered.

I grinned at the trees as I put my beer back
to the arm of the chair.

“Want dinner?” I asked.

“I could eat,” he answered.

I untangled my feet from his, put them to the
deck, pulled myself out of the chair, and moved to the side of
his.

I bent over him and the only movement he made
was tipping his head back to catch my eyes.

“Then you’ll eat,” I said softly before I
leaned in deeper and touched my mouth to his.

His eyes were warm when I pulled away.

My insides were warm when I went inside to
start dinner.

* * * * *

I came hard and loud, crying, “
Oh my
God,
” as it burned through me, doing this digging my heels into
Deacon’s back.

Still coming, I felt his mouth leave me but
immediately felt him thrust two fingers inside. My sex
spontaneously clutched his fingers as he kept thrusting and I kept
coming.

Finally, it started moving from me. I came up
on my elbows to look down my body to see the third hottest vision
I’d seen in my life (the first was Deacon coming, the second was
Deacon breathing). This being Deacon up on a forearm between my
legs, face hot, eyes hungry, fingers fucking me, my legs still over
his broad, muscled shoulders.

“Not done. Want you again, Cassie. You’re up
for it, gonna take it. You’re not, say now,” he rumbled.

“I, uh…going down on me?” I asked for
clarification through panting breaths.

“Yeah.”

“I…uh…”

“Say now,” he ordered.

“Uh…”

“Time’s up,” he growled then I watched him
dip his face back to me (this instantly taking over the spot of
third hottest vision I’d ever seen) but I only got a second before
his mouth hit me even as he kept thrusting with his fingers. My
head dropped back. I dug my heels in and my hips surged into his
mouth.

“
Yes,
” I breathed.

His fingers thrust harder and his mouth
clamped over my clit and sucked deep.

The answer to his question was yes, I was up
for it.

But I told him that in his language.

Without words.

* * * * *

“Fuck.”

“Deacon.”

“
Fuck.
”

“
Deacon!
” I cried out, slamming down
on him and grinding in just as he bucked his hips up, his fingers
digging in to the flesh at my hips, holding me to him as he dug his
head in the pillow and I threw mine back, holding fast to his
wrists so I didn’t topple backwards and lose him as my orgasm
overwhelmed me.

“Ride my cum,” he grunted through his climax,
his fingers still digging in but pulling me up. I didn’t think I
had it in me, but I went back to moving on him, taking him fast and
deep. “Fuck.
Yeah
,” he groaned as I reared on his cock.

I was losing it, carried away by the
sensations, when his thick voice came back.

“Stop, baby.”

I slid down until he filled me and fell
forward, giving him all my weight, pressing my forehead into his
neck.

He glided one hand to my ass, wrapping the
other arm around my back.

We did nothing but breathe for a while.

“Best lay, bar none,” he stated, his voice
still gruff.

With the competition, that was quite a
compliment.

“You too,” I breathed into his neck, still
not fully recovered.

“I didn’t just ride you until your pussy
exploded. You did that to my dick. Fuck, watchin’ all that beauty
go wild, takin’ my cock, enough to undo a man. Add that cunt so wet
and tight…Jesus.”

I loved his words. They weren’t flowery, but
they said a lot from a man like Deacon.

Still, I lifted my head to look down at him,
sliding my hand up to curl it where his neck hit his shoulder, and
I told him quietly, “You know, you’re beautiful too.”

He moved a hand up my back before it left me
so he could sift his fingers into one side of my hair, and he used
it to pull me closer.

“I’ve looked in a mirror, Cassie. Know I’m
not ugly. But you could be in magazines.”

“Deacon,” I whispered, not knowing what else
to say because what he said was so sweet, there was no way to
return that sweetness.

Just feel it.

“No shit,” he stated.

“I’m too short to be a model,” I remarked for
no reason but to say something.

“Then they’re dumb fucks and I’m a lucky one
seein’ as that means you’re sittin’ on my cock, your tits pressed
to my chest, your beauty in my face, and you’re not all that with
some movie star.”

I pressed closer even as I demanded, “Stop
being sweet.”

His hand in my hair gave my scalp a squeeze
as his eyes lit and he muttered, “I’ll try.”

“You’re
so
lying,” I accused.

That was when I got the grin, a grin that
told me he was
so
lying.

I hid my happy smile by dropping my head and
kissing the base of his throat.

When I did, he kept my face there by sliding
his hand to the back of my head and pressing in.

“You wanna clean you up or you want me to do
it?” he asked gently.

“Me,” I answered softly.

“Go and come back to me.”

Come back to me.

That I could do.

I lifted up again, touched my mouth to his,
and then went and came back to him, but I snatched the tee from the
floor that he’d changed into after showering when we were done with
the gutters. I tugged it on before I slid into bed at his side.

Deacon immediately curled an arm around me
and positioned me where he always positioned me when we were
settling in to go to sleep, tucked to his side. This was how we
started the night. We could wake up in any position, him curled
into my back, me curled into his, him pressed to my side, arm
resting on my belly, breaths stirring the hair at my temple.

It was something I was discovering made me
look forward to mornings, waking up and seeing how we gravitated to
each other unconsciously, always close, tucked together.

I wondered what tomorrow would bring as
Deacon got me where he wanted me, reached, and turned out the
light.

Apparently, it was time to go to sleep.

After three magnificent orgasms, I was okay
with that.

But as I lay beside Deacon, listening to his
breathing and knowing from growing experience that he’d quickly
fall into sleep, suddenly, I got tense.

And just as suddenly, I blurted, “I’m worried
about dinner with Milagros and Manuel.”

I felt his arm tighten around my back and he
did this so he could shift me more on his body and pull me up so we
were face to face in the dark.

“Talk to me,” he urged.

I settled in to him, his words settling
something in me because I was finding that response was pure
Deacon.

“You have to lie to them. So do I,” I
shared.

“Why?” he asked and my head jerked. “Haven’t
lied to them yet, don’t need to do it tomorrow.”

This surprised me.

“You don’t?”

“No.”

“But you told them you’re John Priest.”

“You wanna look at it a certain way, I
am.”

I was again confused. “What way is that?”

“He’s made up but he’s still me.”

I thought I got it.

Still.

“That’s pushing it, Deacon,” I said
quietly.

“It isn’t, seein’ as, if this works out,
there’ll come a time when he’s gonna be me.”

That hadn’t occurred to me.

“Really?”

“Yeah, Cassie. I leave that life behind, I
leave Deacon behind.”

“So should I just call you Priest?”

“Absolutely not.”

His tone was so severe I felt my body get
stiff in response to it.

Deacon felt it too, rolled into me, and took
me to my back with him partly on me.

“I need to give Deacon to you,” he said, his
voice gentling.

“Okay,” I said back, again not getting
it.

“You’re bein’ sweet, you’re bein’ ornery,
you’re ridin’ my dick, you’re doin’ all that with Deacon.”

“Could you explain that further?” I
requested.

“No, ’cause I don’t get it either.”

Foiled.

Time for a new tack.

“Are you in acquisitions?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Okay, now are you going to explain
that
to me?”