Sweet Little Lies Read online

  Truth was, she trusted him one hundred percent, with her pizza, with her body, and if she was being honest, with her heart too.

  It was a shocking thought but she didn’t have the brain power to lend to it at the moment. She was far too busy being taken apart by Finn’s fingers as they stroked knowingly over her. But in the vague recesses of her mind, she was aware that if she trusted him one hundred percent, she needed to trust him with the facts of who she was.

  And she would. It was just that things between them had heated up so quickly and unexpectedly in their short time together, and had become so unexpectedly complicated. She wanted to tell him everything, and soon. But it hadn’t really been all that long—only been two weeks—and she needed a little more time to figure it all out first.

  The early evening’s breeze floated over her bare skin, along with Finn’s heated gaze. Every inch of her was crying out for his touch, needing him more than she’d ever needed anything in her life. “Finn.”

  “Don’t let go of me,” he said and tugged a gasp from her when his fingers went from teasing to driving her right to the edge, moving in beat with her heart. Suddenly she no longer cared if she was in danger of plummeting to her death because she was too busy coming apart.

  When she could hear past the roar of her own blood in her ears, she hoped like hell that his neighbors hadn’t been able to hear her cries. “Were we loud?” she whispered.

  He grinned. “We?” he asked, laughing when she smacked him in the chest.

  He caught her hand, kissed her palm, and then tore open a condom packet. Protecting them both, he plunged into her as his mouth claimed hers again.

  Good God. She wasn’t going to die from a fall. She was going to die of pleasure, right here . . .

  Chapter 29

  #HoustonWeHaveAProblem

  The week went by in a blur for Pru. It was a rare blue moon–two full moons in the same calendar month—so SF Tours held a special moonlit cruise week.

  Which meant that Pru and the other boat captains worked during the day, crashed for a few hours on whatever horizontal surface they could find in the building, and then went back out at night on the water.

  This went on for three days.

  On the fourth day, she crawled home and into bed right after grabbing dinner—Frosted Flakes. But she came awake some time later in her dark bedroom to find someone in it with her. Then that someone pulled his shirt over his head and shucked his jeans.

  She’d recognize that leanly muscled bod anywhere and swallowed hard at the gorgeous outline of him bathed in nothing but moonlight. It didn’t matter how many times she saw him in the buff, he never failed to steal her breath. With her still blinking through the dark trying to see his every sexy inch, he slipped beneath the covers with her.

  Naked.

  “Chris Pratt?” she asked. “Is that you?”

  “You don’t need Chris Pratt,” Finn said as he pulled her into a heated embrace.

  He was damp and chilled. “Hey!” she complained.

  “It’s raining sideways,” he explained, wrapping himself around her. “Nasty storm. Your bed was closer than mine. And mine was missing something.”

  “What?”

  “You.”

  Aw. Dammit. “How did you get in?” she asked. “I mean, your hands are magic but not that magic.”

  “Your hidden key.” His magical hands began stroking her, while at the same time he pressed hot kisses against the back of her neck. “Do you mind?”

  She loved being in the circle of his arms. Loved the way he touched her so knowingly and sure, and since he was actually licking her now, she couldn’t concentrate on anything beyond his tongue. Did she mind? “Only if you stop.”

  His hands were hypnotic, his palms a little rough with calluses, his long talented fingers tracing over her breasts, teasing her nipples.

  One thing she’d come to know about him, he was incredibly physical. Whenever they were together like this, he wanted to touch and taste and see . . . everything. There was no hiding, not that she could remember to. He was an incredibly demanding lover, but also endlessly patient and creative. She never knew exactly what to expect from him but he always left her panting for more. “Aren’t you tired?” she asked.

  “I can sleep when I’m dead.” He slipped his fingers inside her panties to cup and squeeze her ass, and then wriggled them to her thighs.

  And she was a goner.

  “Missed this,” he murmured in her ear.

  She’d been hoping for sleep. Now she hoped for this to never end. “It hasn’t been all that long,” she managed. “A few days.”

  “Four. Too long.” Her T-shirt and panties vanished and then his hand was back to its serious business of driving her out of her mind. In less than a minute she was thrusting against his fingers. And in the next, she came so fast her head was spinning.

  “God, I love watching you come,” he said, and then proceeded to show her what a true force of nature could accomplish.

  Mother Nature had nothing on him.

  Later Pru lay in Finn’s arms, her head on his shoulder, her face pressed into his throat, knowing by the way he was breathing that he was out cold, dead asleep. Poor baby, being a sex fiend was exhausting.

  He’d left work and had come here, to her. And there in the dark, she smiled, her body sated, her heart so full she almost didn’t know what to do with herself.

  Had she ever felt like this? Like she just wanted to climb into the man next to her and stay there?

  Being with Jake had been good. She’d had no complaints, but she wasn’t for him. When they’d split, he’d moved on with shocking ease.

  And in truth, so had she.

  But it’d left her feeling just a little bit . . . broken, and more than a little bit unsure about love in general.

  But then Finn O’Riley had come into her life. She knew that she had no business feeling anything for him at all. But apparently, some things—like matters of the heart—not only happened in a blink but were also out of her control.

  She felt her heart swell at just the thought and before she could stop herself, she mouthed the words against his throat. “I love you, Finn.”

  She immediately stilled in shock because she hadn’t just mouthed the words, she’d actually said them.

  Out loud.

  She remained perfectly frozen another beat, but Finn didn’t so much as twitch.

  It took a while but eventually she relaxed into him again, and there in the dark, told herself it was okay. He didn’t know.

  He didn’t know a lot of things . . .

  The panic that was never far away these days hit her hard. She’d been telling herself that she’d waited to tell him the truth in the hopes he’d understand better once he knew her. But deep down, she wasn’t sure she’d done the right thing. Telling him now was going to be harder, not easier.

  And the outcome felt more uncertain than ever.

  As always, Pru woke up just before her alarm was due to go off at the shockingly early hour of oh-dark-annoying-thirty. But this time it wasn’t thoughts of the day ahead that woke her. Or the knot of anxiety wrapped in and around her chest.

  It was the fact that she was wrapped around a big, strong, warm body.

  Finn had one hand tangled in her hair and the other possessively cupping her bare ass, and when she shifted to try and disentangle herself without waking him, he tightened his grip and let out a low growl.

  Torn between laughing and getting unbearably aroused—seriously, that growl!—she lifted her head.

  And discovered she wasn’t the only one wrapped around Finn like a pretzel.

  Thor was on the other side of him, his head on Finn’s shoulder, eyes slitted at her.

  And she did laugh then because it’d been Thor who growled, not Finn. “Are you kidding me?” she whispered to her dog. “He’s mine.”

  But no he’s not, a little voice deep inside her whispered. He doesn’t yet know it but you wrecked this—long be