LIAR LIAR (Sexy Southerners series) Read online

  Her face was surprisingly earnest, despite the desperate desire burning in her eyes. “I can’t…I can’t lie to you, Matt. I want this, and I want you.”

  “Now?” he poised above her.

  “Always,” she gasped.

  And that was all it took for him to come undone.

  As her lips spoke the words he most wanted to hear, he kissed her again, this time with agonizing sweetness. Her body couldn’t lie. As they lay together, she molded herself to fit him, instinctively threading her limbs through his, until he wasn’t sure where he left off and she began. Her hair was a glorious fiery curtain behind the porcelain of her face. A face he thought he could stare at for the rest of his life.

  He hovered over her, waiting for the moment when her eyes met his. The tip of his member teased at her, and she spread her legs further in welcome.

  “Matt, I…” she broke off. Her gaze drifted to his mouth, and she wet her lips.

  “Almost, querida. I’m so close.” He slipped himself into her, thrusting into the wet, silken tunnel of her body. “Come. Come with me.” No longer the raging rapids, they moved in time, like ripples lapping at the river’s edge, steady, repeating and each one larger than the next. He felt her breathing quicken and allowed himself a moment to simply feel every inch of him inside her.

  When she wrapped her legs around him, he knew there was no going back.

  “Now, Jess. Come with me, querida. I can’t hold back any longer.”

  She wound her arms around his neck like she was drowning. Matteo felt the pressure building behind his eyes, until his muscles quivered from the need to release. But first, he had to take her with him. He rolled his hips, making sure his cock stretched every wall of her, and she groaned with pleasure. She ground herself against him, greedy and wet, and her heels dug into his backside as if she could spur him faster.

  So, faster he went. His pumped himself into her, rhythmic and steadily building until he couldn’t take it anymore. She filled his vision, his mind, every sense completely attuned to her, so he knew precisely the moment when her eyes fluttered closed and the walls of her vagina began to contract on him.

  And then he let himself go.

  The orgasm took him so forcefully, he could do nothing but stiffen atop her, letting the sweet muscles inside her milk his cock. Long seconds passed, where every shift of her body added to the sensation of pleasure, until all he could do was bury his face in her neck and shudder. He made sure to prop himself up, so he wouldn’t crush her with his weight. That much sense he held onto. Everything else drifted away.

  Except the overwhelming realization that he had to have her. And to have her, meant he needed to tell her the honest truth. About him. About LoveLines. Hopefully she would forgive him and they’d be able to move forward together. After today, he didn’t want to be without her.

  He didn’t let himself consider the possibility she might not feel the same, once she knew he was a liar.

  Chapter Ten

  “You’re amazing,” Matt said, his face buried in her hair. “Fucking hot as hell amazing, Jess. Damn.” His arms stole around her and pulled her backside tightly to his chest. She didn’t want him to ever let her go. “Damn,” he repeated again.

  She smiled.

  Their breathing slowed.

  She thought maybe she should say something, but the silence that stretched between them was golden and comfortable. It was glorious to finally be free of the insecurities that had plagued her whole life. She’d never felt she measured up, never felt as wanted as she did right now.

  “I’m going to run us a shower.” He slipped free, kissing her cheek. “And then let’s talk.”

  “About?” she prompted.

  “About ‘us’, Jess. There’s something I need to tell you.”

  “Is there an ‘us’?” she couldn’t help but ask. What was he saying? That he wanted her for more than a weeklong hook up?

  His finger hooked under her chin and he gave her a lingering kiss before sliding off the bed. “I hope so. Call you when the water is warm.”

  Her heart trilled in her chest. She stretched, feeling completely happy and sated. In the bathroom, Matt turned the shower on. She could hear him puttering around, humming under his breath, and thought maybe those were sounds she would want to hear every day for the rest of her life.

  Who would’ve guessed that she’d find love in an online matchmaking service?

  “It’s ready,” he called.

  Jess smiled, slipped out from under the sheets and walked naked into the bathroom.

  Matt was waiting for her, his expression like hot chocolate.

  Jess felt a familiar heat in her body at the sight of him. Really, when had she become so insatiable? She covered her blush by stepping under the spray.

  “Hang on,” Matt paused. “There’s only one towel. Do you have another?” he asked, looking around.

  She’d used three in her pre-dinner primping preparations. “Um, I think by the bed. Check the floor by the nightstand?” she asked, angling the spray to her face.

  He disappeared from view.

  Jess ran her head under the water, trying to clear her thoughts. No getting around it, she was his. They were so good together—even the river guide said so. While that wasn’t a glowing endorsement for a long term relationship, she couldn’t deny how she felt. Every inch of her felt sated in his presence, both mind and body. But how to tell him?

  “Matt? Did you find it?” She called again.

  Steam fogged the glass, but she thought she saw him emerge into the hazy bathroom. He was holding something too small and thin to be a fluffy towel.

  Jess peeped her head out.

  It was her litigation paperwork.

  “Jess?” Matt met her eyes, his face an ugly shade of red. “What’s this?” he asked.

  She ducked back in quickly and turned the handle to cut off the spray. “Where did you find those?”

  “They were on the floor by the bed, where you told me to look for the towel. I couldn’t help but see them, Jessica. Are you….are you investigating LoveLines?” His voice was cold now. “Tell me you aren’t.” She desperately wanted to hear that hot fudge drawl again.

  But he was all work and no play.

  She grabbed the one remaining towel from the counter and wrapped herself up, feeling completely exposed and as if she’d done something wrong.

  “I told you. It’s my job.”

  “So, it’s true? You’re working? This…you and I…” Matt looked light he might be sick. “It was all some notes for an investigation file?”

  “Of course not! I enrolled as a LoveLines client before they assigned me to look into the case!” Her cheeks burned. How could he think that after what they’d just shared?

  Matt’s eyes scanned over the pages, as if memorizing them.

  Her paperwork should’ve been confidential. She cursed herself for forgetting to put them away, but she’d just been so preoccupied with thoughts of being with him, she’d forgotten to put them back in her briefcase.

  “Here, give me those.” She grabbed for them, awkwardly. The towel started to slip off.

  He paused and for a moment she wondered if he would hand them back, but he shook his head and thrust them at her, as if afraid to make contact with her hand.

  “So, all this…you and me. What you said earlier?” He shook his head sharply, as if trying to wake himself. “I should’ve known you were too good to be true.”

  “I don’t understand why you are so angry, Matt. I told you, I am a LoveLiner, I have been for months. This investigation has nothing to do with us.”

  He turned away from her now and went into the bedroom, dragging on his briefs and slacks as if he was on fire. “It has everything to do with me. You’re trying to ruin LoveLines’ reputation. Everything they’ve worked for.” His voice was hard. His eyes met hers with hot accusation. “Everything I’ve worked for.”

  She felt his words like a slap to the face. “You?” She sh
ook her head. “I don’t understand. You’re one of my guaranteed matches.”

  “We were never matched, Jessica. My name is Matteo Brandt. And I’m the creator of LoveLines.”

  “But…but…” she sputtered. It didn’t make sense. “You run a horse ranch. The Smoking Brandt Ranch.” She shook her head. “You…pretended to be a client? Why?” Her hands went icy and her vision started to cloud around the edges. Her bullshit meter went ballistic, and realization hit her like a fist. “To thwart the investigation.” She sat down heavily on the edge of the bed to catch the breath that seemed stuck in her throat. “You knew about me and you tried to skew the investigation.”

  “I own the ranch, but I run LoveLines. It’s my system, Jessica. My software programs, my hosting platform, my creation. It’s me. And you’re trying to destroy it.”

  “I’m not trying to destroy anything, Matt. I’m trying to find out the truth! I never meant to hurt you. I never expected to fall….” Her voice trailed off before she made a complete fool of herself. Again. “How could you trick me like that?”

  “I did what I had to do.” Matt was breathing heavily, and not in a good way. “I had my reasons for posing as a client.” His jaw clenched stubbornly.

  “As did I,” she rationalized, yanking the towel back over her chest. “The truth is I never expected to find someone who makes me feel like you do.”

  Matt recoiled as if he’d been slapped. “Yeah, well. Truth hurts.” His voice was soft and sharp as a knife to her heart. He gave her one last tortured glance and stalked out, shutting the door between them.

  ***

  “Oh, boy…so you just left her there, Bro? Please, tell me you didn’t.” Seneca put a hand over the phone receiver, while she dialed the front desk for a status update on Jessica Barlow.

  “Yeah.” He put his head in his hands. “I’m a complete asshole.”

  The minute the door had shut behind him, he knew it was a mistake. The one thing Jess feared most was a guy who loved her and left her—which was, ironically, his original plan to derail her investigation. Now that she’d left her mark on his heart, he hadn’t meant to be ‘that’ guy. Pride had led him to his sympathetic sister, instead of the bar, but now he had no clue what to do next.

  “Mhmm,” Seneca agreed. “You are.” She held one pointed finger in the air and then nodded to the phone receiver. “Okay, thanks.” Seneca put the room phone down with an audible click and patted his back. “She left town, Matteo. First plane back to Atlanta. Looks like we better saddle up and get ready for mediation on the Alicia Lange case. Don’t worry. Your affair with Jessica means we’ve got her right where we want her. She can’t hurt us.”

  Oh, she’d already hurt him.

  He was a total ass. He’d thought that making love to Jess would put things right in his head. That once he’d had her he could forget about her and put an end to the affair that could jeopardize everything he’d worked for. Damn, damn, damn.

  Making love to Jess only made him realize one thing. He was falling in love with her. Totally and completely.

  What’s worse, now that he confirmed her as a plant for investigation, he’d ruined her. Her trust and her career. Aside from the fact that he’d lost her forever, she’d never be able to testify in court. Hell, she’d probably be fired.

  He should be thrilled—his family and his company were safe. He could go on with business as usual.

  Instead he felt like a total shit.

  “You had to do it, Bro.” Seneca patted him gently on the arm. “For the familia’s sake.”

  “Doesn’t make me feel any better.” Matteo shook his head, staring at the sun rising over the mountains in the distance. He didn’t know what to do now. Him. The guy with all the answers.

  Seneca made a soft clucking noise. “Well, it should. Once we get back to Fort Worth, everything will be back to normal, you’ll see.”

  “Sure.” Matt got up to leave. Seneca had no way of knowing the depth of his feelings for Jess. The last thing he was capable of doing was pretending everything was as it used to be. It wouldn’t be—not for him, anyway. Not for Jess, either, he guessed. He’d spent all that time getting to know her, building up her confidence so he could break down her inhibitions. Now it was he who felt broken apart inside. What had started out as a sham to protect his family had ended with him being exposed. He would never be the same.

  “Sure, I’m right.” Seneca agreed, earnestly. “I mean, who knows? Now that you got her to open up, there’s no reason she can’t fall for one of the guys in the program, right? Isn’t that what you said?”

  “What?” A thought pierced his shattered mind. Matteo stopped in his tracks. “What did you say?”

  Seneca looked confused. “Remember? You said once she opened herself up, she could find a guy in the program.”

  A plan began to formulate, coalesce in his brain like a thundercloud about to wash away his guilt and shame. Could it work? Matteo ran a palm over his chin. Maybe he did have all the answers, after all!

  “Seneca, mi hermana, you are a genius!” He kissed both her cheeks and dashed from the room.

  “Wait,” she called down the hall. “Where are you going?”

  “To my room. I’ll call you later.” He shouted over his shoulder. He dashed to the elevator, then, impatient shoved at the double doors to the stairwell. Thankfully, the lodge had unlimited wi-fi. He could access the LoveLines website in less than five minutes. Two, if he hurried.

  Matteo put on a fresh burst of speed, swiping his keycard through the slot in record time. Seneca was right; maybe he could fix this so everyone could get what they wanted. After last night, he had no more illusions.

  He wanted Jessica Barlow for himself.

  He’d make it happen, by god. He’d open a LoveLines account for himself, take the profile matching surveys and manipulate his answers to match Jess! The computer system would show another legitimate match, the fraud case would be tossed out and she would be his—at least, he hoped she would be after they both apologized. Surely it wouldn’t take long for her mind to follow where her body had already been. Her body had been his. Now he wanted the rest of her. He flipped his keycard on the dresser and fired up his laptop.

  Matteo was a man on a mission, a man with a very important test to take. The LoveLines page loaded and he immediately set to work establishing his client account. He drummed his fingers impatiently as the first survey question of the matching system loaded.

  Then, he took a deep breath and laid out Jessica’s profile for reference before typing in his first response.

  It took hours to complete--mostly because he had to keep stopping to verify that he was duplicating words from Jess’s profile. Time well spent, he thought. With a guaranteed match, maybe things could work. He would be matched to her, there’d be no support for the phony fraud case and she’d finally believe they were meant to be together.

  After the last survey entry, he exited the LoveLines system. Then he logged back in as an administrator, and queued up the next profile matching sequence for all LoveLines clients.

  When the screen finished buffering, and photo icons of the women matched to his profile began to pop on his screen, Matteo smiled and laced his fingers behind his head. This would work. It had to.

  Ten minutes later, he stopped smiling.

  It didn’t work.

  She wasn’t listed in his matches.

  He couldn’t believe it! Matteo smacked his hand against his forehead. How could this be? He’d been so careful to try to create exactly the kind of profile that should’ve paired him to her. Every fiber of his being belonged with her. What the …?

  He had total faith in his system, it was the perfect blend of psychological profiling and compatibility. There was no way in hell he shouldn’t be with her. Not from the messages he got from his heart and his head, not to mention other raging parts of his body.

  She should be his.

  He dragged his hand through his hair. Something was terribly
wrong. Maybe Alicia Lange and her high priced lawyers were right. Maybe his LoveLines matchmaking system was faulty. He needed to get back to his computer files and research, to check the codes for processing the matching system.

  He grabbed his cell, and punched in his sister’s number. “Get us on the next flight to home. And get the family together. We need to talk.”

  No matter how you sliced it, Matteo Brandt may have just risked his family’s security on a guaranteed lie.

  Chapter Eleven

  She should have seen this coming.

  She hadn’t allowed herself to get hurt…not since Stan. After that, Jess had been too afraid to let anyone get close enough to hurt her…until Matt. Or Matteo, she supposed she should call him. Her heart ached. She was just so furious. How could she have let him get close to heart, let alone her body? She should’ve known better, should’ve seen this coming….

  She haphazardly packed her clothes, ignoring the stab of regret when she trashed her ivory silk blouse, the one ruined on the first day stormy interlude. The first time she’d let him touch her. Damn that man. She didn’t care what his reasons were, he’d lied to her. Jess snatched up her betraying files and stuffed them deep into the folds of her briefcase. Her door slammed with a satisfying thunk as she left.

  In the lobby, she plunked her luggage onto the rack near the hotel shuttle podium and turned, just in time to run directly into Rex Stanton.

  “Looks like our breakfast date is out?” Rex smiled politely.

  “Mr. Stanton.” Jess felt her cheeks grow warm. “You could say that.” She bit her lip. Honestly, she had the worst luck in the world when it came to men.

  “It’s a shame, Ms. Barlow. You were definitely one of the more promising clients in this little adventure. I was hoping to draw you out a little more and see what’s underneath all that pretty packaging.”

  His compliment was like a slap in the face. So, even Stanton didn’t feel like he’d scratched her surface? She didn’t know why she couldn’t just open up and let things go. She never had, actually, except for the past two days. With Matt.