Page 23 of Liar
“I did,” he said, as if it was no big deal. And maybe it wasn’t to him, but to me, it so was.
I leaned down, my blonde and pink hair draping around his face. My nose was inches from his as I whispered, “And why the hell didn’t you tell me you talked to him? What did you say? You didn’t do anything bad, did you?” Travis had done a lot in the beginning to keep Sawyer and I apart, manipulating and getting Declan involved…and chaining me to his bed.
His hands gripped my sides, fingertips brushing the sensitive skin at the hemline of my shirt, but he didn’t flip us. He simply held onto me as he said, “No, I didn’t do anything bad. In fact, I offered him some advice.”
“Why?”
“Because I know he means a lot to you, and you don’t want him to fuck up.”
I blinked. Couldn’t say why, but hearing Travis say that made my heart warm. Sometimes I worried that Travis only cared about himself, but then he went and did things like this…he might be obsessed with me, but he had to love me, too. Love was sacrifice, and for Travis, allowing me to be with the other men my heart called out to was the largest sacrifice there could ever be.
“Careful,” I warned, leaning down so my lips brushed against his with every word, “or I might start to think you’re sweet.”
His mouth quirked under mine, his azure stare taking on a lustful, half-lidded look. “I’m anything but sweet, Ash. You know that.”
“It’s nice to imagine,” I mused, ending the sentence by pressing my mouth against his, taking whatever else he was going to say and swallowing it down. The hands on my sides tightened in their grip, and I held a hand against Travis’s jaw, as if stopping him from turning away.
He wouldn’t. He’d never turn away from me. I wasn’t one to be overconfident in my abilities to wrangle someone else, but when it came to Travis, there was no doubt in me. I had every fiber of his being, and I loved it.
I broke the kiss to ask, “What’d you bring in the bag? Any presents for me?”
At that, Travis pushed me off of him, reversing our positions like I knew he wanted from the beginning. His legs pinned mine down, and I felt a growing hardness pressing against my midsection. His hands found my wrists and held them over my head. “So curious,” he whispered, a dark expression crossing his face.
God, he was so sexy.
Travis glanced at the one sitting at his desk, saying, “Declan, get my bag.” His chest rumbled with the order, the vibration reverberating into me. His thumbs dug into the tender spots of my wrists just enough to sting but not enough to hurt.
Declan was slow to take off his headphones, making sure both Travis and I saw his rolling eyes as he went toward the kitchenette, where Travis had left his bag. Just a black backpack, totally nondescript. The wonders it had to hide… Declan walked to the side of the bed, setting it near Travis.
He was about to return to his desk, but Travis said, “Open it.” Taking a commanding tone with Declan too, it seemed, and Declan…was actually doing as he said.
I watched as Declan undid the main zipper to the bag, his cheeks growing pink the moment he saw what lay within. “What is it?” I asked, causing Declan’s amber eyes to meet mine. He didn’t answer right away, causing me to say again, “What’s in there?”
“Ignore her,” Travis ordered, and Declan’s dark gaze traveled to him. “Get out the blindfold.”
Blindfold? What the hell—
I tried to pull my wrists from Travis’s grip, but he was strong. Not that I was afraid or anything, but a blindfold…could lead to a lot of things. A lot of things I’d want to see and not just feel.
Declan pulled out a black strip of cloth, and Travis said, “Put it on her.” He adjusted his hold on my wrists so that both of my wrists fit in one of his palms; the other he used to cradle around my neck and prop me up a bit.
Declan crawled onto the side of the bed, careful in how he wrapped the blindfold around my head and tied it in the back.
My world became black. The fabric of the blindfold was thick, the opposite of lacy, although it was soft. For whatever stupid reason, I kept my eyes open, blinking, trying to see if I could maybe peek through the bottom or the top, but Declan had it on good. There would be no peeking whatsoever.
Pooh.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, this was fun, but I wanted to see what was happening.
Travis let go of my wrists, but he immediately said, “If you try to take that blindfold off, I’ll take Declan and leave.”
“What?” I asked, fighting my urge to bring my hands to my face and yank it off. “You can’t—Declan?”
Declan’s voice was quiet as he said, “You should probably do what he says, Ash.”
I let out a sigh, feeling weight shifting on the bed. Hot breath on my ear as someone whispered, “Do you trust us?” Travis, based on the voice. I could tell them apart by voice, maybe by their grunting, so as long as they kept talking through it, I’d know who was doing what.
“Yes,” I whined out, inhaling sharply the moment hot hands touched my stomach, pushing up my shirt a bit. More weight moving on the bed, on both sides now. I was still fairly certain that Declan was to my left while Travis was to my right.
