Unfinished Hero 04 Deacon (25 page)

I wasn’t sure Deacon had seen me in anything
but tees, shorts, sweaters, and jeans.

This wasn’t a big departure from that, but
now I was wearing a long-sleeved, semi-fancy tee. It was a
fantastic olive green that did good things to my eyes. It was
blousy up top and had a wide neckline so it dipped off a shoulder,
exposing the black lacy bra strap underneath (putting on one of the
few good pairs of underwear I had was another effort I’d made; the
hint at bra strap an indication of goodness to come later for
Deacon). The rest of the shirt fit snug at my breasts, ribs and
waist, the hemline low, covering me to mid-hip.

The shirt was five years old. I’d always
loved it but I hadn’t worn it in ages.

I’d paired this with some nice jeans, far
less faded than my others. And when I left the bathroom, I was
going to add jewelry.

I had some heels, none of which had been out
of their boxes for so long they might have disintegrated, though I
was afraid to check. But so as not to give Milagros and Manuel
heart attacks, I was going to wear some flippies. However, the
flippies I was going to wear were going to be the ones I sometimes
wore into town, these being the ones with the rhinestones on
them.

Satisfied with my efforts, I exited the
bathroom and saw Deacon from the side of my eye standing outside
the closet. I turned to him and stopped dead.

This was because he was indeed standing
outside the closet.

But he was doing it with the velvet ropes I’d
bought in a moment of weakness years ago when I was with Grant. A
moment of weakness that was born ages ago, when I was
seventeen.

Certain my brother had stolen one of my
favorite CDs, I’d searched his room and found some magazines under
my brother’s bed. It was in them that I saw the image. An image
that affected me in a way that freaked me out at the time but
didn’t let go. An image that stayed with me into being an adult
when I could process it and psych myself up to explore it.

An image that pushed me to buying those ropes
off the Internet and approaching Grant with my idea, to disastrous
results.

And they were ropes I saw now I should have
thrown away because Deacon had found them where I’d thrown them on
the floor in the corner of my walk-in closet and forgotten them.
And now he was standing there, holding his hands out in front of
him, the ropes draped over them.

I knew without knowing how that he knew what
those ropes were for.

And now I knew there was a good possibility
he was going to think I was a kinky freak.

His face was impassive. Completely.

I felt my face flush and my throat close, my
gaze locked to his.

He spoke first and he did it low, his voice
giving nothing away, just like his expression.

“You like to be tied up, Cassidy?”

Oh God. I was right. He knew what they were
for and he thought I was a kinky freak.

I felt my stomach churn and forced myself to
speak but my voice was weak when it came out. “I bought those when
I was with Grant.”

“You bought ’em?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“For him.”

I swallowed and shook my head.

The room filled with something I did not get
but it scared the crap out of me.

“For you?” Deacon pressed.

“Yes,” I whispered.

His tone had a rough edge I couldn’t read
when he repeated, “You like to be tied up?”

I didn’t answer him.

Instead, I informed him, “It didn’t
work.”

His head tipped slightly to the side but his
face still gave nothing away. “It didn’t work.”

“We only, um…tried them once and Grant didn’t
know what he was doing. It hurt. He got freaked then pissed and it
was…well, not enjoyable.”

More bad filled the air when he asked, “It
hurt?”

I nodded.

“He hurt you,” he stated flatly.

“He didn’t know what he was doing,” I
repeated.

“How’d he bind you?”

Oh God. This was a disaster.

“Do we have to do this?” I asked. “They were
only used once. It was just a wild hair I got. I should have thrown
them away.”

“How’d he bind you, Cassidy?”

I shook my head, guessing as to what was
behind his line of questioning. “He’s gone and when we tried it, it
didn’t hurt for long. He untied me and we never tried it again.
There’s no need to get angry at him. He didn’t mean to hurt me and
anyway, we’ve been over for years.”

Something moved over his features that,
again, I could not read.

“How did he
bind you
, Cassidy?”

I gave in.

“Like I requested,” I said quietly. “Um…on my
knees, head down, hands to feet.”

That was when he gave me something. His jaw
got hard.

“Deacon, it was my idea,” I told him quickly.
“It was an adventure. Something I got stuck in my head.” God, could
this be more embarrassing? “It wasn’t Grant’s fault he didn’t know
how to do it.”

“You bind to the bed,” he declared and I
blinked.

“Sorry?”

“You don’t start out complicated,” he
explained. “You bind your woman immobile to the bed, see if she can
take that, see if she gets off on it, see how much she gets off on
it. She comes hard for you, that’s when you explore.”

Oh my God.

“Have you—?” I began.

“Four women, none of them worked, not for me,
’cause I didn’t give a shit about them. But it worked for
them.”

Oh my God.

I felt my nipples start tingling.

Deacon kept speaking.

“You’re ready, you’re used to takin’ it from
me vanilla, you trust me, you make the call. I tie you to the bed
and hope like fuck you come hard for me.”

“You like it,” I said softly.

“Yeah, though never did it with someone who
matters so doin’ it with you, wildest dreams.”

Wildest dreams.

My clit pulsed.

“Is this what you meant about playing?” I
asked.

“Part of it.”

Just part?

“What’re the other parts?”

“There are a lot of other parts.”

Could you have an orgasm standing fully
clothed six feet from your man?

I had a feeling I was about to find out.

“Give me a for instance,” I demanded.

“You like ropes, I bind you. Wrists to feet
like you want, ass in the air for me to play with, eat you, fuck
your cunt, take your hole, all of that and you won’t be able to
move.”

I swallowed and locked my legs so I wouldn’t
go down.

He read my reaction from six feet away. I
knew it when he whispered, “You want that.”

I couldn’t agree verbally but I knew my
expression gave it away for me.

“Ass play?” he pushed.

I swallowed again.

Grant and I had tried that too. It also
hadn’t worked. Not because I didn’t like it, I did. A lot. But
because he got so excited when he took me, he’d come on the second
stroke. He’d been humiliated and never tried it again, never even
brought it up. Because it mortified him, I didn’t either.

Deacon stared at me, the mask slipping, his
eyes getting hotter, his face darkening, and finally he spoke.

“Fuck, can you get any better?”

God, that felt good.

“I don’t know,” I replied.

“I do,” he returned. “Face made up, hair like
that, a bra I wanna see, every day it gets fuckin’ better.”

Feelings so beautiful swept through me, I
closed my eyes so I could concentrate on their exquisiteness.

“Here,” Deacon ordered.

I opened my eyes. “I can’t. I’m still freaked
about what playing means at the same time processing how
magnificent you are.”

That was when the mask obliterated and raw
suffused his face.

Not raw badness.

Raw
goodness
.

I gave that to him.
Me
. All that
goodness there for me to read on his face, it was me who gave that
to him.

My heart leaped.

“
Here
,” he growled.

My heart stopped leaping and my lips turned
down. “Seriously, you’re gonna have to stop doing that. You want
me, I’m right
here
.”

I said the words and then Deacon was right
there. He’d tossed the ropes to the bed and when he made it to me,
his hand clutched in my done up hair, his other arm around me
holding me snug to his body, face an inch from mine.

“Fuckin’ beautiful, but a pain in my
goddamned ass,” he muttered.

“Same here, Supreme Leader of the
Badasses.”

“Case in point.”

“You’re messing up my hair.”

“Another case in point.”

“Are you gonna kiss me or just stand there,
messing up my hair and annoying me?”

He stared into my eyes and changed the
subject.

“One woman on the planet who doesn’t need
makeup, she’s you.”

I shivered with glee at the compliment but
still rolled my eyes to the ceiling and told it, “Now he’s messing
up my hair and being sweet.”

“Don’t need it, but you look good in it,” he
stated.

Totally worth the time to get dolled up.

I looked back at him and bossed, “Stop. I
already almost had a spontaneous orgasm and I’m gonna freak
Milagros and Manuel out because they’ve never seen me in makeup, or
with a guy for that matter, except you the other day, of course.
Which, in case you missed it, freaked them out. Now I’m getting all
warm and squishy. They’re Mexican. They’re Catholic. They don’t
cuss and I’ve never seen Milagros show even a hint of cleavage,
much less a bra strap. We need to practice decorum.”

“We can do that in the truck on the way
there.”

“Okay, then you need to get a move on with
practicing non-decorum so we can get on our way there.”

His lips quirked. “Spontaneous orgasm?”

“Like you don’t know.”

“Binding you to the bed tonight, woman.”

I rolled my eyes to the ceiling again even
though that caused a full-on tremble. “God, help. He’s not
listening to me.”

“Cassie?”

I looked again to him. “What?”

“Best lay, bar none. Funniest bitch, bar
none. Finest woman, bar none. And all of that better every
day.”

His words made me drop my head and do a face
plant in his shirt because I couldn’t hold it up anymore. I added
my weight because I couldn’t stand on my own anymore either.

Deacon slid his hand down to curl it around
the back of my neck.

“Can’t kiss you with your face in my chest,”
he noted.

“You shouldn’t call women bitches,” I
whispered.

His body shook with his chuckles, shaking me
with it.

It felt beautiful.

I kept whispering when I remarked, “I’m
making you happy.”

I felt his word stir the top of my hair when
he replied, “Yeah.”

I closed my eyes.

Now
that
felt
good
.

“We need to get on our way, baby,” he said
into my hair. “Give me a kiss.”

I took in a deep breath before I tipped my
head back and rolled up on my toes.

Then I gave him a kiss. It was wet and sweet
and I knew I was going to remember it my whole life.

When Deacon broke it off, I put in some
earrings, clasped on a necklace, slid on a couple of rings, and
donned my flip-flops.

After that, Deacon took my hand and off we
went to have dinner with my friends.

* * * * *

“Do you play football?”

“No.”

“Did you?”

“Do you?”

“Not yet.
Papá
says I can do Junior
Football League next year.”

“What position you want?”

“Quarterback.”

“Nice.”

I sat next to Deacon on Milagros and Manuel’s
couch, watching this exchange between him and Esteban, thinking he
actually was the Supreme Leader of the Badasses. This was mostly
because, when we arrived fifteen minutes ago, Esteban started his
inquisition and hadn’t let up and Deacon had answered every
question, but half of them he answered without answering.

“
Cállate,
Estito, with you asking so
many questions,
Señor
Priest hasn’t even been able to take a
sip from his beer,” Silvia remonstrated.

She wasn’t wrong.

“Be nice,
mija,
” Manuel gently
rebuked.

Her cheeks got pink, her eyes skittered to
Deacon, they got pinker, and she looked to her lap.

Silvia had a crush on my man.

Not surprising.

“John,” Deacon’s deep voice filled the room
and Silvia looked back to him. “Your parents are okay with it,
girl, you can call me John.”

Slivia’s eyes went to her dad. So did mine.
Manuel smiled and dipped his chin down.

Silvia looked back to Deacon and said
timidly, “Okay, John.”

Deacon smiled at her.

Her eyes got huge and then dropped back to
her lap.

I swallowed a giggle.

“Cassidy,” Milagros said like she was about
to make an announcement. Pushing up from the couch across from us
that she and Manuel were sitting on, she ended on an order. “Help
me in the kitchen.”

She needed no help in the kitchen. She needed
to give her friend/employer a talking to about this
boyfriend-out-of-the-blue business, seeing as all the time she’d
spent at the cabins since Deacon returned was time I was with
Deacon so she didn’t have time to do it before.

I gave big eyes to Deacon, his lit with
humor, and I let his hand go (a hand I took; he was back to no PDA,
though he did sit close to me on the couch, but this could have
been because Esteban wedged himself beside Deacon). I squeezed his
thigh then got up and followed Milagros, who was already heading to
their tiny kitchen.

Milagros cleaned my cabins and she had two
other houses in town she also cleaned. She’d had a business that
was going pretty well, it allowed her to work and bring in needed
money while the kids were at school, be at home when they got out.
Then the recession hit and she lost five clients. That was when she
went looking for work and I took her on.