Deceived - The Complete Series (20 page)

She made her way out of her room and down the hallway. She could smell something cooking and it instantly made her feel nauseated.

“Well, good morning, sleepy head!” Thomas’ voice was booming...it was too loud. Angela just gave him a look and continued over to where she usually leaves her purse. “Did somebody drink too much wine last night?” he asked her. Again, she ignored him. She bent to pick up her purse and her stomach rolled. She fished around inside of it until she got hold of her phone. When she turned back around, Thomas was staring at her. “Are you okay?” he asked in a softer tone.

She nodded. That made her head start pounding again. “I feel like I got drunk last night.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You did kill a bottle of wine,” he said. “That was all you too, I wasn’t drinking.”

“I’m feeling it,” she said. “I don’t even remember getting to bed.”

“I helped you,” he said. For some reason that admission sent a chill down her spine.

“You helped me? You didn’t...get me dressed, did you?”

He rolled his eyes. “No, geez! You help a person out these days and you get treated like a big pervert.”

“I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant. I just usually wouldn’t wear this stuff to bed...”

He shrugged. “When I helped you into your room you were still wearing what you put on after your bath. I’m not sure what brought about the wardrobe change.”

She finally looked down at her phone. There were two missed calls from Steve. She needed to call him back before he came pounding on the door, thinking Thomas did something to her. “Well, thanks for your help,” she said. “I guess I need to practice what I preach and check how much I’m drinking.” She started back down the hall and he said, “Wait! I made waffles and sausage.”

Her stomach reacted to the idea of that and then she said, “I’m sorry, Thomas...I can’t eat. I feel so sick to my stomach this morning.”

He looked disappointed but he said, “Okay, well...I’ll save you a plate.”

She forced a smile at him and said, “Don’t worry about it. Steve and I are having breakfast today. I actually overslept. He’ll be here any minute. I need to call and warn him I’m not ready.”

As she spoke, her eyes were on his face. She thought she could see something dark cross his face...but she couldn’t be sure. If she did, he recovered quickly. He replaced the look with a smile and said, “Okay, I’ll see you when you get back.”

She smiled again, nervously. Maybe it was listening to Joanne and Steve, or maybe there really was something “not right” about Thomas lately...either way, she was getting a weird vibe from him. Maybe it was just the way her morning was going...so far, it sucked.

Chapter 2

Thomas watched Angela leave a half an hour later. As soon as she was gone, he went over to the window of the loft and looked down at the street. He could see Steve standing there next to one of his fancy sports cars. He couldn’t believe she was impressed with that phony shit. There had been nothing about Blake that wasn’t real...how could she go from him...to that?

He thought about last night and felt a sense of calm descend over him. He’d made love to her and she had liked it. Some might argue that she was drugged and didn’t have a choice, but the fact was that she was wet and ready....and oh how she had moaned as he pounded his cock into her over and over again...He felt himself getting hard. He ran his hand across the front of his jeans. He wasn’t going to touch it...he wanted to save it all for her when he made love to her again, tonight.

Thomas watched her kiss that son of a bitch on the lips and slip into his car with a smile on her face. Someday...soon, she would realize that she was with the wrong man, and all of her smiles would be for him. He ran his hand across his erection again. It’s only nine-thirty in the morning...he didn’t think he was going to be able to wait. He sat down at Angela’s computer and pulled up the site he’d bookmarked in his private browser. It was called, “Behind the red door.” It’s an “escort” service and while he was browsing one day he’d come across a photo of a woman who worked for the agency...she looked a lot like Angela. He looked up her name and then he called the agency and “ordered” her.

He took a white comforter out of his own closet and then he went into Angela’s room to get things ready. It only took fifteen minutes for the “escort” to arrive but he was ready. When he opened the door, he was slightly disappointed. She looked a lot less like Angela in person. Her facial features were harsher...but she would have to do. “Hi, I’m Lena,” she said.

“No,” Thomas told her, pulling her inside and shutting and locking the door behind her. “You’re Angela.”

She shrugged and said,“The credit card cleared baby, I’ll be whoever you want me to be for the next hour.”

Thomas leaned in and kissed her. She kissed him back, passionately. He felt his erection grow as he slid his lips to her ear and said, “Oh Angela, tell me you love me, baby.”

“I love you,” she said in a breathy voice.

“Say my name. Tell me you love me best...even more than Blake.”

The whore was a good actress. “I love you best, Thomas. I love you so much more than Blake. He can’t hold a candle to you and I can’t wait to get fucked by your hard cock.”

Thomas growled and grabbed a handful of her long dark hair. Using it, he pulled her into Angela’s bedroom. He had lingerie laid out on the bed. “Put it on,” he told her.

She shrugged and began to strip. Thomas sat on the bed and watched her. He had to unzip his jeans and pull out his cock...he was ready to come already. She finished stripping out of her clothes and she picked up the skimpy pink outfit and slipped it on. She was a little taller than Angela, but that worked out fine. The suit was cut up high in the front and it stuck up inside her pussy, splitting her wet lips wide open. It barely covered her tits and both of her ass cheeks were bare.

“Nice,” he said, “Now lay down on the bed.” She did as he got up and went over to grab his phone. “Pull your hair down over your face and pose for me. Open your legs...wider...now touch yourself.” Thomas snapped photo after photo while the fake “Angela” posed in different sexual positions with her face mostly covered by the masses of her dark hair. Finally, he couldn’t take it any longer. He grabbed his cock and went over to the bed. “Suck it,” he told her. She didn’t hesitate to take it in her mouth. Within seconds, she was deep-throating him and he picked the phone back up and snapped several more pictures. When he was on the verge, he tossed the phone aside and grabbed two handfuls of her hair. He thrust in and out of her mouth until at last he dove over the edge head first into a massive orgasm. He rocked in and out until he was finished and then still using her hair, he pulled her back off of him and said, “Get dressed and get out. We’re finished here.”

*****

A
ngela doused her already buttered waffle in syrup, wiping the tip with her finger and then licking it when she was through. Steve watched her with an amused look on his face. “Somebody is hungry today.”

She smiled and licked her lips. “My stomach was upset but now I’m starving. I don’t think I ate much last night.”

He frowned then and said, “You don’t think? Didn’t you have dinner with Thomas last night?”

“Yeah, he made dinner, but when I got home I was so stressed out over everything with Kim that I started on the wine right away. I guess maybe I got carried away. I don’t remember eating...and I don’t even remember going to bed.” She made a face and said, “I’ve never blacked out when I drank before, it’s weird. But I did wake up with one hellacious hangover this morning.”

Steve looked concerned. His brows were drawn together as he said, “What did Thomas say about it all?”

She shrugged. “Not much. He just said I drank a whole bottle of wine and he had to help me into bed.”

“But you don’t remember it?”

“No, not at all. I’m sorry; I guess that sounds kind of bad, doesn’t it?”

“It sounds really worrisome,” he said. “I don’t like the idea of him being the only one around when you’re that out of it.”

She made a face and swallowed a big bite of her waffle. After taking a sip of her coffee she said, “He was a perfect gentleman.”

“How do you know?” Steve asked her. “If you can’t remember any of it, he could have done anything to you.”

For a brief second, Angela’s mind wanted to put that together with the fact that she was so sore this morning. She shook it off immediately...that would be rape. Thomas is not a rapist. “He wouldn’t,” she said, picking up the carafe to pour more coffee.

“Baby...I know you want to think that he’s the man you’ve always known, but I sense something really dark there. I’m almost never wrong.”

“Almost never. I really think the way you feel about me colors what you feel about him. He’s not a bad guy, Steve. He’s my best friend.”

That time Steve looked hurt. “I thought I was your best friend,” he said. Then he grinned to let her know he was kidding.

“You’re my newest best friend,” she said, “With benefits. Thomas is my oldest best friend, without.”

“I certainly hope he knows the difference,” Steve said. Angela didn’t answer him. She popped the last bite of her waffle in her mouth and smiled. After swallowing she said, “What’s on the agenda after breakfast?”

“Smooth,” he said with a smile, “The way you changed the subject there. But I don’t know. I’m open to whatever you want to do.”

“I know today was supposed to just be about us...and the rest of it will be...but my friend from work text me just a bit ago. She’s going to Europe for a year. It’s a last minute thing because her grandmother is sick and she’s going to run the family business...anyways, she wants to sub-let her place while she’s gone. It’s in West L.A. and it’s really close to Venice Beach.”

“That sounds nice,” he said, “When is she leaving?”

“August fifteenth.”

“Oh wow, that only gives you a couple of weeks.”

“A little over three weeks but that’s the only reason I’d ask to use some of our precious time together to go look at it. Would you mind?”

“Not at all,” he said. “The sooner we get you out of that apartment you’re in...the better I’ll sleep at night.”

Chapter 3

Angela stayed with Steve in the Long Beach house for the rest of the weekend. When she got home Sunday night, she found Thomas on the couch watching a football game and in a somber mood.

“Hey, how was your weekend,” she said, sitting down next to him.

He shrugged. “Nothing exciting. How was yours?”

“It was fun. Steve and I spent some time at the beach...”

“Where they didn’t have cell phone service?”

“Excuse me?”

“You couldn’t send a quick text that said, “Hey, I’m not coming home for a couple of days?”

“First of all, I’m a grown woman, so I shouldn’t really have to report to you or anyone else if or when I’m coming home. Second of all, I’ve only been gone since yesterday morning.”

“It just would have been polite,” he said, not willing to let it go. “I was worried about you.”

With a sigh she said, “Thomas, who did you hang out with before I got here?”

He shrugged again. “I have a few guys I hang out with sometimes...and Kim and I used to do things together, why?”

“Because I’m just afraid you’re too dependent on me for company. I can’t always be here.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m not asking you to always be here...just be courteous if you’re going to live here.”

“Okay, fair enough. But, I’m only going to be living here for three more weeks.”

He sat straight up and the look on his face almost frightened her. “What are you talking about? You’re not moving in with him are you?”

“With Steve? No...not now anyways.” They hadn’t talked about it at all, but Thomas was kind of pissing her off. “I got an apartment, at least for the next year. I’m sub-letting Donna’s place.”

“Donna? The chick from payroll at work?”

“Yes.”

“Why Angela? That’s an extra hour in the morning you’ll have to leave for work because of traffic, you don’t have a car...”

“I need my own space,” she interrupted him. “We’ve gone over and over this. Steve is going to help me get a car through one of the guys his business deals with...”

Thomas jumped up off the couch and began to pace. “I just don’t understand what I did?” he said. Angela had been expecting a scene with him, but she still wasn’t prepared for how angry he was. It was bizarre to her. Friends are supposed to want their friend’s to do better. She was finally healing. Why wasn’t he happy about that?

“You didn’t do anything, Thomas. I appreciate the hell out of everything you’ve done for me. But this is the next logical step. I can finally sleep at night. I can finally make it through a day without crying. You have so much to do with that, thank you.”

He dragged a hand through his hair. He looked so agitated that she wasn’t sure what to do. “Angela, you can’t leave me,” he said. “I need you.”

“Thomas, honey...Are you having feelings for me?” she wanted to keep denying it. That would be so much easier. But she just couldn’t any longer.

“I’ve always had feelings for you,” he said. “You’re my best friend. I love you.”

“I mean...feelings, Thomas, like more than friends.”

“I know what your mean. Don’t be ridiculous. Blake was my best friend.”

“I don’t think I’m being ridiculous...you’ve been acting really strange. Can’t you see how I’d worry?”

He was silent for a while and then he finally said, “Maybe having you here has helped me deal with losing Blake. I miss him.”

“Oh Thomas, I miss him too. I miss him like an amputated limb. It’s a constant ache...but it’s dulled as time goes by. I’ve finally accepted that but it doesn’t mean I love him any less. Life goes on and I have two choices...I can die too, or I can live. I choose to live and I wish you would too. I wish you would go out and have fun. You’re such a wonderful, handsome man...”

“You don’t have to say all of that,” he said.

“I’m not just saying anything, Thomas, it’s true. You used to be one of the most confident men I knew. Since I’ve been here I haven’t seen you go out on a single date. Why is that, Thomas?”