Deceptions: A Collection by Shiloh Walker Read Free Book Online

“They refuse anybody with any sort of sexual assault or domestic violence, but everything else, they consider on a case by case basis. There’s a form for those who do have a record so if they still want to get on the site, they can apply.”
    She rattled off a few more things—stats and shit that made no sense to him and why would he care? But then she paused and looked at him. “I emailed you a little while ago about something—don’t you go ignoring it now.”
     
     
    Decker had written this probably a hundred times, or explained it. He would probably do it again, the next time he had to talk to somebody about a job, or the next time somebody complained about a felon living next door and the supe found a reason to kick him out.
    Not too many people liked the idea of a convicted killer working for them, or living close by, although he’d learned there were those who’d give him a chance. Rowland had been cool with it, and his current landlord seemed fine to live and let live. But Decker was under no illusions that anything in his life was permanent—except Lizzie—so yeah, he’d have to tell this story again.
    Just as he’d told it so many other times, and it always started out the same way.
    I did what I felt I had to do, and while I regret the fact that it was necessary, I have no regrets that I took the actions I did…
    And so it went.
    He did have to admit that he didn’t think he’d ever be explaining himself to a fucking dating site. Well. It was a little more than a dating site. It was a social site for those with tastes outside the mainstream ideal . That was how they advertised themselves. And why they were probably not totally opposed to having felons on the site.
    Fuck knows there were women who’d all but crawled over him when they found out he had a record.
    That kind of thing left him cold inside. Although more than once, he’d taken a lady up on it. She wanted what she saw as a risky fuck and he just needed to not be lonely every once in a while. It got damn lonely in bed at night, him, his fist, his fantasies.
    It was sex, nothing more, nothing less. At least on his side. Whatever they got out of it, he didn’t know. Well, other than orgasms. He could give them that.
    If they tried to linger with him, ask questions— why did you do it, what was it like —well, that just hurried the end along that much quicker. He didn’t talk about that night unless he had to. And it was a kick in the face that he was doing it with total strangers. Via email, no less.
    But every time he thought about the profile he’d seen Selah working on?
    Yeah. He had to try.
    Because whether Lizzie realized it or not, she was going to have guys crawling all over her profile.
    The phone rang just as he sent the form off—he thought of it as I’m a killer, but only under certain circumstances form. “Really,” he muttered, grabbing the phone. “I’m safe. Trust me.”
    Lizzie’s face flashed across the screen and he reached up, pinched the bridge of his nose.
    “Hey, Lizzie.”
    “Deck.” Her voice was…weird.
    Slowly, he straightened up in his chair, turning away from the miniscule desk to face the single studio apartment where he’d lived for the past nine months. “What’s up?”
    “There—um—well, this is…I don’t know how to say this.”
    “You just say it, sugar,” he said, rolling his eyes—amused even as frustration bubbled. Lizzie sometimes seemed like two people trapped inside that sex-bomb body of hers. When she was at work, or when she was in a position where she had to be in charge, she was just that. In charge . Capital letters, italics, full out in charge.
    But when it came to her ? Her personal life? What she wanted? What she needed? What made her happy? She went all quiet. Bunnies could be more demanding than she was.
    And it pissed him off, because she hadn’t always been that way.
    He knew, all too well, what had caused it. But he didn’t know how to knock down the wall