Believing Lies Read online

  “Okay. Gotta go. See you later, baby.”

  He hung up before I had a chance to say goodbye. I hadn’t been expecting a couple of hours to myself, but I wasn’t surprised either. Trenton had been stuck working late a lot over the last few weeks; a downside of being a newer employee. Even though it was his family’s firm, he didn’t want special treatment. I could appreciate that, but it still stunk that he was at the office so much.

  I finished unloading the dishwasher and went to the couch to watch one of my favorite shows, Game of Thrones. Trenton thought the show was “crap” and liked to point this out to me whenever I watched it. Therefore, I tried to watch it when he was busy or wasn’t home. After a couple of clicks on the remote, I found the episode I was looking for on my DVR.

  I watched two episodes back-to-back, and just as the second one was ending, I heard a click from the door opening. I turned to find Trenton walking in, holding his briefcase in one hand and a brown paper bag in the other. He looked so handsome in his tailored pants and a white button-down shirt. His red tie hung loosely around his neck. He gave me a quick kiss and set down the bag of takeout. My nose was overwhelmed by the delicious smell of sweet and sour chicken that filled the air, and my stomach grumbled noisily. Apparently, I was hungrier than I had previously thought. After eating at The Turning Point, I was shocked I was actually hungry at all.

  Trenton chuckled at the protest from my obnoxious stomach. “Hey, baby. Sorry I’m late. Let’s get some food in you.” He glanced at the TV in time to see the preview for the next episode and scrunched up his nose. “Game of Thrones again? I don’t get why you love that show so much. Seems like a bunch of crap to me.” I decided to just ignore the comment. It wasn’t worth trying to defend something that we would never see eye-to-eye on.

  We chose to eat our food in the living room because it was more laid back and comfortable, but also because the dining room table was still covered in wedding books and folders. I changed the channel to ESPN while Trenton went to get me a soda and a bottled water for himself. He’d just had a long day at work, so I figured it would be nice to watch something that would make him happy. Besides, as soon as I began to eat, I couldn’t have cared less about what we were watching because all of my focus was on the AMAZING pile of pink-sauced chicken in front of me.

  As soon as our food was gone, I dug into the paper bag for the fortune cookies. The cookie had always been my favorite part of getting Chinese takeout. Most of the time the quotes were totally vague or irrelevant, but something about that little slip of white paper always made me smile. I let Trenton pick which one he wanted from my hand. I began to open the wrapper on mine when I noticed he was already eating his cookie. Oh well. I tried to not be disappointed, but I wished he would have waited for me. I’d mentioned it to him many times in the past that I thought it was fun to crack open fortune cookies at the exact same time, but he never seemed to remember. Let it go. There’s no use in bringing it up again. Sometimes I made too big of a deal out of silly little things, and this was most likely one of those things.

  “What did your fortune say?” I asked curiously.

  “It was pretty lame. Here, you can read it.” He handed me the paper, and I read it.

  “It’s our choices that show who we truly are.”

  He was right. It was lame. I finished breaking open my cookie and pulled out the small fortune. I read my quote to myself.

  “When one door closes, another one opens.”

  It wasn’t the worst fortune ever, but it was pretty general.

  “Are you going to tell me yours?” Trenton asked.

  I arched my back, so that my breasts pushed out. “Hmmm . . . Very interesting,” I said coyly. “It says, ‘You will find great joy today in bringing great joy to your ever-patient fiancé.’”

  An amused grin passed over his lips. “Liar. Let me see that thing.”

  “No way.” I gave him my most innocent, doe-eyed expression. “Don’t you trust me?”

  I moved around the coffee table and climbed onto his lap. My lips pressed gently against his. I slowly removed his tie and began to unbutton his dress shirt. I took my time admiring his body with every button that I opened. Once the final button was undone, I ran my fingers up his chest. He tugged at the hem of my shirt and pulled it over my head, kissing my neck and the swell of my breasts. My body felt like it could combust, but when Trenton reached for the zipper of my jeans, my head cleared. I stopped the kiss and pulled back a bit to look in his eyes before I moved his hands away from my zipper and wrapped them around my butt instead.

  Trenton laid his forehead against mine and let out a long, frustrated sigh. “Sienna, you can’t toy with me like this. I can only take so much.” He pulled back and looked in my eyes. “It’s really not natural for a guy to hold out so long.” I watched as he struggled to maintain a sense of control. “You have heard of blue balls, right?’’

  Trenton had never wanted a long engagement. Originally, I was hesitant of the idea of a short engagement because I wanted to wait until after I graduated before getting married. After quite a bit of persuading by both him and my mother, I’d agreed to push up the timeline and get married in September. Trenton said that the rush for the wedding didn’t have to do with the fact that I was a virgin and wanted to wait until after we said “I do” to have sex. Although we’d done almost everything but actual sex, I knew that Trenton was tired of waiting for more.

  It hadn’t always been my plan to wait until marriage, but not a single one of my past boyfriends had been the right guy to hand my V-Card to. By the time I was twenty, I figured that since I’d waited this long, I might as well wait until after I was married.

  Living together made it harder to resist temptation. If the wedding wasn’t around the corner, I would probably forget the whole idea. But since September was so close, I was determined to stick it out. Sleeping in the same bed every night was its own form of torture, and it often took all of my willpower to keep myself from rolling over and changing my mind. As hard as it was for me, I was sure it was ten times worse for him. Before I came along, Trenton had a pretty active sex life, and I needed to remember this was a very long dry spell for him to endure.

  “I’m so sorry, honey.” I kissed the side of his mouth. “I love you so much, and it’s only a couple more months. Then I promise to make it up to you every day for the rest of our lives.” I moved my lips along his jaw and softly whispered, “Besides, we don’t have to have sex for me to take care of you. Now come to the bedroom, Mr. Blue Balls, and let me fulfill what was on my fortune.”

  ***

  I awoke to the heavenly aroma of coffee in the air and bright sunlight shining in through the windows. After stretching my arms and legs like a lazy cat waking from a nap, I threw back the covers and reluctantly got out of bed.

  I found Trenton at the kitchen’s breakfast bar reading the newspaper while enjoying his coffee in a plain black mug. I pulled out my mug from the cupboard and proceeded to fill it almost to the point of overflowing. It had a scene on it from my favorite movie of all time, Gone with the Wind. I’d had this mug for several years now and would be heartbroken if anything ever happened to it. I loved to wake up to Rhett Butler leaning over Scarlett O’Hara, ready to kiss her. My coffee was too hot and burned going down my throat, but the flavor was so good that I continued to sip it anyway.

  I walked over to Trenton to give him a kiss. “Good morning.”

  He turned his head just enough to briefly peck my lips, his eyes never leaving his paper. Deciding that talking to him would be a lost cause while he was so preoccupied, I opened the pantry to get out the Fruity Pebbles. Although it was considered a kid’s cereal, I ate it almost every morning. I filled my bowl and sat next to Trenton.

  As I took my last bite of fruity goodness, he neatly folded his paper and turned to me. “How did you sleep?”

  “Fine. I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. Did you sleep well?”

  “Of course. You
were next to me.” Awww. When he said stuff like that, my heart did a little flip. He could be so sweet. “What kind of wedding stuff is on the agenda today?” he asked.

  “We have cake testing at two o’clock downtown, and then we’re driving to Milwaukee to visit a florist who Monica says is one of the best. And you know my mother, nothing but the best for Clarice Trudeau.” I rolled my eyes. “My only saving grace is that Sophie is coming with.”

  He chuckled. “Your mom must be really happy about that.”

  “Positively ecstatic,” I replied sarcastically. I couldn’t keep the goofy grin from my face when I thought about how much Sophie was going to irritate Mother today.

  My phone beeped with an incoming text. I picked it up from the counter and saw a message from Sophie.

  SOPHIE: Hey twat waffle. Pick me up 4 lunch b4 day with Momzilla?

  ME: Sure. When/where?

  SOPHIE: Noon/not sure yet

  ME: OK. C U then. B ready! I don’t want to wait on your ass

  SOPHIE: Oh please. I wait on you all the time!

  ME: Whatever u say, shitbreath ;)

  “You seem happy. Who was the text from?” Trenton asked as I tossed my phone into my purse.

  “Sophie. I’m going to pick her up for lunch before we meet up with Mother and Monica. I’ll leave here around eleven thirty to get her. I won’t be home until probably after dinnertime . . . Maybe sixish.” I noticed the blank expression on his face. “You don’t mind, do you?”

  “No, of course not. I was thinking I would see if I could get together a game of football with Paul and some of the guys.” Paul was Trenton’s best friend, and by “guys” he meant his previous frat brothers. That reminded me of my conversation with Adam yesterday when he mentioned that Conner used to live at a frat house.

  “Sophie met a guy yesterday that she’s interested in. His name is Conner Vance, and he works at The Turning Point. He used to be in one of the fraternities last year. Do you know him?”

  “Yeah. He wasn’t in my frat, but I know who he is. He seems like a decent guy. I can’t say the same for his roommate. It’s too bad that Conner quit his frat to live with that douchebag.” Douchebag? Adam’s not a douchebag.

  “You know his roommate too?” I asked.

  “Not personally. He was at some of the mixers with Conner at the end of last year, and he looked like a tattooed rock star wannabe.” Trenton snorted. “I’ve got to hand it to the guy though. He was a chick magnet. The first time I met him, he slept with two sorority girls during the party and left with two others afterwards. The last party I saw him at, he had girls all over him again.” Trenton concentrated for a second, furrowing his brow. “I just don’t get it. Why do girls like to sleep with guys like him? He’s obviously a loser.” Trenton must have noticed the look of disbelief on my face. “Sorry, baby, I didn’t mean to go on a tangent about a guy you don’t even know.”

  “His name is Adam, and he’s actually a nice person.” I didn’t know why I felt the need to stick up for Adam, but I couldn’t help it. Maybe he was a womanizer, but Trenton was being pretty judgmental. “I met him yesterday while Sophie talked to Conner, and he seemed okay to me.”

  Trenton’s lips pursed and his jaw tightened. “What do you mean he seemed okay? How well did you get to know the guy, Sienna? Did you sit there flirting with him while Sophie picked up his friend?”

  “Oh for heaven’s sake! Of course I didn’t!” I let out a deep breath. “I met the guy, told him right away I was engaged, which he had already figured out by my ring anyhow, and proceeded to have a light conversation with him. Stop being ridiculous.”

  Trenton’s face relaxed. “You’re right, baby. No more caveman today. I just don’t like the idea of a man-whore hitting on my girl.”

  “I understand. I don’t like the idea of girls hitting on you either.” I gave him a light kiss on the lips. “I only love you. You know that.” I picked up my cereal bowl and put it in the dishwasher, glad the conversation about Adam was over. “I’m going to go get ready,” I informed him and then grabbed my coffee and headed to the bathroom.

  I shaved and did the whole lather, rinse, repeat process before turning off the shower. I decided to wear a pale-blue maxi dress and gray wedge sandals. I put on the charm bracelet my dad bought me when he went to a medical conference in New York last week. I blow-dried my hair, pinned it back into a messy up-do, and then applied some light silver eye shadow, mascara, and clear lip gloss. When I finally decided I looked presentable enough to meet my mother’s standards, I headed back into the living room and found Trenton napping on the couch. After such a long workweek, he deserved some extra sleep. He looked so peaceful that I didn’t want to wake him up to say goodbye, so I left him a note on the counter instead.

  T,

  I left early for Sophie’s and didn’t want to wake you.

  Have fun playing football with the guys. Tell everyone Hi for me!

  Love ya always,

  S

  Chapter Four

  The elevator stopped at the underground parking level of our apartment building, and I walked over to my new ruby-red Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Convertible. Sophie was constantly bitching about it being a manual transmission because she didn’t know how to drive stick shift. I couldn’t imagine owning this particular car in an automatic—that would be sacrilegious. My parents had bought it for me as an engagement present. Normally I wouldn’t accept such an expensive gift, but I’d wanted this car for several years. I could have afforded to buy it for myself due to my sizable trust fund and the inheritance my grandpa had left me, but I disliked spending large amounts of money. Sophie was also left the same amount of money by Grandpa, but she didn’t have any issues with spoiling herself.

  I pulled into the parking ramp near Sophie’s downtown apartment an hour earlier than originally planned. Her place was a lot like ours. It was a very spacious two-bedroom with hardwood floors, stainless steel appliances, and bay windows. From her balcony, you could see both the lake and the State Capital. I was jealous of her location, but Trenton preferred the west side.

  I had my own set of keys for both her building and apartment, so I let myself in without knocking. In hindsight, I should have knocked because when I walked into her kitchen, I saw Conner standing there with only a towel on, drinking orange juice directly from the carton. Water was dripping onto the floor, but my eyes were glued to the water dripping down his torso. My previous assumption yesterday was right; the boy was definitely ripped. He had a large snake tattoo, which started at his shoulder and wrapped all the way down and around his waist. I wasn’t a fan of snakes, but damn if I didn’t find that particular snake pretty sexy. Conner noticed me gawking at him from the doorway. He gave me a knowing smile, and my cheeks burned crimson.

  Embarrassed, I quickly turned my back to him. I couldn’t believe I’d just openly checked him out. I was practically a married woman! In my defense, it was pretty much impossible to not notice a half-naked man. I’d thought he was cute at the restaurant, but wet and shirtless was a whole different ballgame.

  A chuckle came from over my shoulder. “Sophie is in the shower. I’ll go let her know you’re here.”

  I managed to squeak out a “thank you” and then hid myself in the living room. A few minutes later, Conner sat on the chair across from where I was sitting on the couch. Thank sweet baby Jesus that he was no longer in the towel, but rather in worn jeans and a T-shirt.

  “She said that she’ll be right out. I’m Conner by the way. We were never officially introduced.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Conner. I’m Sophie’s cousin, Sienna.” I paused before rattling on. “I’m so sorry if I intruded. She wasn’t expecting me for another hour. I wouldn’t have just barged in if I’d known she wasn’t alone.”

  He tried to stifle a laugh. “I figured as much. I’m glad you didn’t come in twenty minutes earlier because you would have gotten an eyeful.”

  I shook my head. “TMI, Conner. TMI.”
>
  Sophie joined us in the living room and sat on Conner’s lap. He put his arms around her and kissed her shoulder. She was dressed in teeny-tiny jean shorts and a bright red halter top. Mother was going to flip a lid at her outfit. Her hair was still wet, and she didn’t have any makeup on yet.

  She gave me a pointed look. “You’re early.”

  “A little heads up in your text stating that you had company may have prevented that.”

  She gave me a mischievous half smile. “I’m just giving you shit”.

  Conner interrupted our exchange. “I have to go anyway.”

  They stood up, and Sophie gave him a brief kiss.

  “I had a great time,” he told her. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “You better.” She smacked him on the butt as he turned to leave.

  As soon as we heard the door close, Sophie dramatically fell to the chair. “Best. Sex. Ever! My naughty radar was right on the money this time. The man was a machine. I’m serious. I’ve never had so many orgasms in one night. You seriously don’t know what you’re missing, Sienna. What you might do with your hand is nothing like the real thing.”

  I threw a purple accent pillow at her. I was proud of my aim when it hit her directly in the head before ricocheting to the floor. “You can be so disgusting sometimes.”

  “You know I have no filter. I say it like it is.”

  “Most of the time you say way too much. Besides, how can you take sex so casually? You just met the guy yesterday.”

  Sophie was no saint, but she normally didn’t sleep with a guy she barely knew. Usually it took at least two or three weeks before she even considered having sex with somebody.

  She sighed. “I know, I know. I didn’t expect to sleep with him either. But we had so much fun when we went out last night. We met up with a few of his friends at The Turning Point, and they were really cool. Conner and I talked and danced, and he kicked my ass at darts three times. You know that I never lose at darts. I felt more connected to him after a few hours than I have with guys I’ve dated for a few months . . . To skip the gory details for your virgin ears, one thing led to another, and obviously you know the outcome.”