Read Online A Just Deception by Adrienne Giordano - Free Book Online Page A

hand.
    Isabelle closed her eyes. She could do this. She’d flip the switch in her head and forget how much she liked him. Making it a physical thing shouldn’t be hard. Not after all her years of practice. They’d be good together and both needed the release.
    Opening her eyes, she realized he was watching her. She pulled her hand from his hair, dragged it down his cheek, over his shoulder to the dark swirling hair on his chest. Forget how much you like him. She bit her bottom lip before moving in for the kill.
     
    “What are you doing?” Peter asked, his head—both of them—about to explode. He grabbed her hand before it completed its journey south.
    She’d done it again. That closing her eyes thing where her demeanor changed and she became distant. What the hell?
    “Did we have a signal malfunction?” Izzy asked. “I mean, I think I have pretty good radar and I thought we had, um…chemistry, I guess…between us.”
    He squeezed her hand. “There’s no malfunction.”
    She slid her hand away. “Then what’s the problem?”
    She wasn’t the only one perturbed. “Creepy Izzy is the problem.”
    She opened her mouth and left it hanging for a second. “Did you just call me creepy ?”
    “No. I called the person you turned into creepy. I’d love to give Fun Izzy a good shagging, but Creepy Izzy I’ll pass on.”
    She drew her head back. “Huh?”
    “You change. You did it last night right before you kissed me. But when you kissed me at your office, it was Fun Izzy.”
    She sat and stared at him, either thinking he was completely whacked or that he’d nailed it.
    “I…I can’t believe you noticed that. No one has ever noticed.”
    Nailed it.
    An insane flickering started under his skin. “Then they weren’t paying attention because you definitely check out.”
    “No, Peter.” Her voice hitched and she moved an inch closer. “It’s not you.”
    Yeah. Nice try. “I’m the only one here.”
    She scrubbed her hands over her face. Stalling probably.
    “It’s a coping thing I do.”
    “A coping thing?” He sat up. “You need a coping thing to have sex with me? Jesus, Izzy, you should stop talking right now because this is going off the rails.”
    “No.” She waved her hands at him. “That’s not what I mean. It’s the sex. I have to separate the physical from the emotional. I flip a switch in my head. It comes from the abuse. Please, Peter, try to understand.”
    “I don’t understand.” But, shit, he’d like to because the disappointment might just kill him.
    “No one has ever figured it out. Particularly not someone I’ve known one day. I’ve told you things I haven’t shared with people I’ve known for years. I’m freaking out. Very much so.”
    All he could do was lay back and throw his forearm over his eyes. Could he be any more of a selfish prick? She was a victim of abuse and he was letting his dick do all the thinking. He had no idea what went on in her head…or her heart. He got rid of the thought and sat up to face her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.”
    She nodded. “I’ll try to explain it, but I don’t know if it’ll make sense to you.”
    “Give it a shot.”
    She sighed, gathered sand in her hand and let it slip between her fingers.
    “Sex for me has never been about making love. Being abused by someone I loved caused a…a malfunction…between sex, love and trust. Sex, just for the physical gratification is good for me, but if I start to get emotional, I get scared.” She brushed sand off his knee. “I loved Kendrick, and he exploited that love.
    “Three years ago I had my first serious relationship and the sex brought back all the pain. For the first time since the abuse happened, I cared about someone. As soon as the sex became more about an emotional connection rather than a physical one, I ended the relationship. I just didn’t know how to deal with it. I still don’t.”
    Separating the physical from the emotional. Holy