“Really?”
“Yeah, Cassie. I leave that life behind, I leave Deacon behind.”
“So should I just call you Priest?”
“Absolutely not.”
His tone was so severe I felt my body get stiff in response to it.
Deacon felt it too, rolled into me, and took me to my back with him partly on me.
“I need to give Deacon to you,” he said, his voice gentling.
“Okay,” I said back, again not getting it.
“You’re bein’ sweet, you’re bein’ ornery, you’re ridin’ my dick, you’re doin’ all that with Deacon.”
“Could you explain that further?” I requested.
“No, ’cause I don’t get it either.”
Foiled.
Time for a new tack.
“Are you in acquisitions?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Okay, now are you going to explain that to me?”
“Baby,” he said softly, dipping his face closer so I could see him in the moonlight, his hand coming up to rest against the side of my head. “Like I said, that world I live in doesn’t touch you. That includes you knowin’ fuck all about that world.”
“But I wanna know you.”
“You know me,” he declared.
I shook my head. “I don’t and won’t if you don’t give more to me.”
“Those tears leak out of your eyes in my bed in cabin eleven for a man you don’t know?”
God. He was annoying.
Because he was again right.
I decided not to answer.
He knew my answer anyway and went on, “You know me, Cassie. You believe in me. You wouldn’t be right here wearin’ my tee if you didn’t.”
Again he was right.
Again I said nothing.
Deacon kept speaking.
“I told you I believe in what I do. That’s part of you believin’ in me, believin’ that I’m doin’ what I need to do. But, baby,” he got even closer, his voice dipping lower, “I don’t want you knowin’ what goes down in that world. I want you livin’ in the splendor of Glacier Lily, worrying about gutters and gazebos, and not tainted with that shit.”
This did not sound good at all.