I could hear him breathing. I could smell his musky scent. I could feel the tattoo of my heart against my rib cage.

Then his hands were on me. Pulling me close. So close.

“I still feel like there are words unsaid,” he murmured. I could barely see him. Only an outline. And his eyes.

“Maybe now isn’t the time for words.” I kissed him. Hard and rough. I was terrified of gentle. Right now that would be my undoing.

He pulled back slightly, already panting. Already ready and wanting. “Don’t hide things from me, Hannah. Promise me,” he growled almost aggressively. The deep emotion I had seen just minutes earlier had been transformed.

I licked the salt from the skin at the base of his throat. His pulse fluttered beneath my tongue. He shuddered. I trembled.

He was still feeling edgy. I could tell. Maybe even slightly angry. He didn’t exactly know why. There was something about me that enticed him. Infuriated him. Excited him.

“Everyone has secrets, Mason,” I whispered, pulling away from him, still trying to hold on to the deception. The role of the temptress. But she was breaking apart. Shattering. Tattered and fading.

I couldn’t play coy with Mason. Not anymore. We had stepped into something else.

Something scarily real.

I started to undress. Slowly. Carefully. I felt his hands caress my skin as I did so, helping me with the buttons. Unzipping my skirt.

His eyes shone bright in the darkened room. His hands were shaking with the need to touch me.

“I’ll share a few of mine with you, Mason. That I can promise.”

Was I lying?

Was I finally giving him some truth?

I didn’t think any more because his lips silenced me and there was no more talking.

Chapter 20

Mason

I wanted to believe her.

God, did I want to believe her.

She seemed genuine.

Sincerity is easy to fake.

I thought about the letter I had received just a day ago.

Do you see the truth? She does a good job of hiding it from you.

It was a little too appropriate.

Hannah had been hiding the truth from me.

But was it a deal breaker?

So she had been fired. I understood her not wanting to tell me that when we had just met.

But why keep up the lie after we got to know each other?

Why not tell me she was going to see her sister?

Her reasons all made sense.

I listened to her excuses and I wished them to be true. They had to be. Hannah cared about me. I knew it.

Right?

So why couldn’t I let it go?

Where there’s one lie, there are more.

Experience had taught me that.

After discovering that Hannah didn’t work for Western Railways, I had done something I’d told myself I wouldn’t do. Not with her.

I did a background check on my girlfriend.

I started to dig.

I learned details that she had yet to tell me.

And the things she had purposefully kept secret.

Like where she worked now.

At Holt IT Solutions, a cybersecurity firm located in downtown Richmond. At least she had been honest about that.

A little more digging gave me her job title. Network security engineer.

I knew exactly what that entailed, given my history in IT.

Why would she lie about that?

I did a cursory criminal history check and came up with nothing, which was a relief.

Did I really think she was a criminal? Had we gotten to that point?

I didn’t know where to stop. How far down the hole should I go?

I stopped short of checking her tax returns. That felt like a step too far.

I already felt strangely guilty about looking into her to begin with.

But she lied.

And she hadn’t given me much of an explanation as to why.

Do I get over it?

Do I give in to the temptation to forget about all the doubts that are screaming in my brain?

Here we were, in her bedroom, my mouth on her skin, her hand wrapped tight around my throbbing cock, and I was trying to remember all the reasons I shouldn’t trust this woman.

Because every part of my body wanted her.

But…

“Mason,” Hannah moaned, arching her back as my lips latched around her nipple, pulling it between my teeth.

She had lied to me.

Over and over again.

About simple, silly things.

What bigger things is she not being honest about?

The thought jarred me. It brought me slamming back down to earth, parting through the lust-fueled haze.

I loomed over her in the dark, staring down at her on the bed. Her dark hair fanned out around her. Her chest rose and fell rapidly.

I had thought Hannah was everything I had been waiting for. She had fallen into my life so damn perfectly. She was easy to talk to. I found myself comfortable with her.

Now I couldn’t tell how much of it was real.

But I wanted to believe her. I was going through the steps of justification in my head.

She was simply embarrassed.

No one is completely honest with people they don’t know.

She would have told me eventually.

Don’t self-destruct now that you’re so close to being happy.

But I couldn’t forget how foolish I had felt finding out that she had deceived me.

Was that what this was about?

My pride?

No.

It was more than that.

Hannah ran her fingers down my chest, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake.

She made it hard to think.

Perhaps that was the real problem here.

I was hurt. Because I was starting to fall for this beautiful, not entirely truthful woman.

“Will you always tell me the truth? From here on out?” I found myself asking as she pushed my jeans down past my thighs. I kicked them off before pulling my shirt over my head.

Hannah pressed her hand over my heart. I gave myself time to look at her. Every tiny, lovely part of her. My dick was hard and aching. I wanted nothing more than to bury myself deep inside of her. I knew she wanted that too.

But I couldn’t touch her. Not the way I wanted to.

Not yet.

She had lied to me. For weeks. Details crafted to paint a picture of a life she didn’t lead.

I couldn’t quite let that go. No matter the reasons.

Don’t trust the person who has broken faith once.

“Mason,” Hannah groaned, reaching out for me, but I evaded her grasp.

I was laying myself bare for her. She had no idea how hard it was for me to do that. I needed her to understand what this was costing. I worried I would make a mistake. I had made so many of them. With Dillon. With Madison.