Deceptive Innocence Read Online Free PDF Page B

kissed me, the way he moved inside me.
    He smiles, knowing I’m not telling the truth and not caring. His eyes roam the room, as if trying to view his dark wood furniture, the fireplace, the few pieces of designer men’s apparel that have been casually left on the floor for the first time. “It fits my needs,” he says.
    I bite back a laugh. If he needs all these things, then he must be the neediest man on earth. “What do you do, Lander?”
    I know the answer too well.
    “I work for a bank.”
    “Ah, so you got all this on a teller’s salary?”
    The way he slid his hand up my inner thigh, the way his fingers caressed me, toyed with me until I cried out.
    “I’m a VP,” he explains with a smile.
    “Wow, you worked your way up in the world at the young age of . . . I’m guessing you’re around thirty?”
    When he found that spot on my neck, the way he teased it with his tongue, alerting me to sensitivities I didn’t even know I had.
    “Thirty-two, and no,” he says calmly. “My father is the CEO, my brother’s a managing director. I was given what I have. I didn’t earn a thing.”
    The admission is unexpected, and it jolts me out of my revelry. I look at his face, searching for either smugness or regret, but neither is there.
    “Does it bother you?” I ask. “Having everything come so easily?”
    “No,” he says, his hand sliding over my stomach, stroking my skin. “I’ve added my own complications to my life,” he continues. “In the end nothing will be easy at all.”
    “In the end,” I repeat, trying to ignore the slow circular movement of his palm. “That sounds so final.”
    “Endings usually are.”
    “We should drink to that.” I sit up and hold the comforter over my breasts. If there was ever a time for modesty, this is not it. But I’m feeling shy now, unnerved by what he was able to unleash.
    “Let’s drink to happy endings,” I say, keeping my voice casual, flirty.
    His eyes sparkle in the dark as he examines me. “I don’t believe in happy endings.”
    “Then what do you believe in?” I pull back a little more, grab one of the dress shirts I spot crumpled by the bedside, and throw it on. “What should we toast to?”
    He sighs, but his smile is bemused as I inch out of the bed. “If we have to toast to something, let’s toast to justice.”
    Again I’m hit with a wave of uncertainty. That came out of left field. Does he suspect?
    “I don’t think I understand,” I say slowly. “How did we move from endings to justice?”
    “You asked me what I believe in,” he says. “I believe that a lot of the things we strive for in this life are either unattainable, illusions, or a matter of luck. Like security, happiness, or even . . . well, love . But justice . . . I think we can actually have that. I think that if we work for that, if we make justice a primary ambition, then it’s attainable. It’s the philosophy I live by.”
    “But . . . you’re a banker.”
    Lander breaks out in a laugh so rich and warm I can’t help but join in. “I guess I wasn’t thinking in professional terms,” he admits. “I was thinking more along the lines of . . . of social justice, I suppose.”
    “Ah.” I study my ring. “I think I get it. Justice is . . . well, it’s a good goal. Very noble. Maybe even attainable, for some—but I’m not sure it is for everybody. It’s . . . elusive sometimes, I think.”
    “Even for the goddess of war?”
    “Battles are never easy, not even for the Roman gods.” I button the shirt quickly, my eyes now on the floor. “But I’m not craving justice right now anyway,” I lie. “All I’m craving is a drink.”
    He smiles. It’s a knowing smile. It’s disconcerting. “If it’s important to you, I’ll get us drinks.” He starts to get up, but I put out a hand to stop him. I lean in, touch my lips to his.
    “Stay where you are,” I whisper as I pull away. “Tonight, at this moment, I want to serve you.”
    He