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His brows arched slightly. “That sure answers a lot of questions. How did you become part of it?”
Bailey scrutinized his expression, surprised. There wasn’t even a hint of skepticism there. “We were recruited,” she replied, still not yet trusting that he was taking her seriously.
“Huh.” He swiped his tongue along the inside of his lower lip. “I can see why you’d have caught the Movement’s attention.”
She felt her brows slide together. “You can?”
“You’re strong. Fearless. Loyal. Sharp. You have your own mind but respect the chain of command. That you’re also a loner without a mate would have ticked their boxes.” His forehead creased when she stared at him. “What?”
Bailey shrugged. “I thought you might struggle to trust that I was telling the truth.”
“Once upon a time, I’d have doubted you,” he admitted. “I’d made too many incorrect assumptions about you. But now, yeah, now I can easily believe it. You’re a person who’d commit to something you wholeheartedly believed in, especially if you thought it would make a difference to others.” He squeezed her hands. “Thank you for your service.”
Relief slipped through her bloodstream, and her snake’s tension eased away. That had not gone as either of them had expected. Not that they had any complaints. “You really can’t tell anyone. The only people in the pride who know are Tate and Luke.”
“I told you, you can trust me.”
“I know I can, or I wouldn’t have shared it with you. But I also know that you’re close to your family, who are all about being open with each other. I can imagine it would bother you to keep major secrets from them.”
“Not if those secrets simply aren’t their business or need to be kept private. I love my mother, but I’m not blind to the fact that she struggles to keep things to herself.”
Bailey felt her mouth quirk. “She’s awesome. You’re lucky to have her.”
His expression softened. “Yeah.”
“What was it like to grow up in a family where you’re the only dominant?”
“Fine, mostly.” Releasing her hands, Deke skimmed his palms up her arms and settled them on her shoulders. “But you feel like you have to tone yourself down; keep the more intense parts of you dormant until you’re around other dominants. Only then do you really let the full force of your personality stretch out.”
“Did it make you feel like the odd one out?”
“Sometimes. But my parents knew that, so they did their best to counter it. Still, it didn’t always work. I couldn’t even have a real spat with my brothers over trivial things because at some point my level of dominance overwhelmed them; then they’d cringe and cower, which made me feel like a sack of shit. So I had to bite my tongue a lot and put a chokehold on my temper.”
Bailey felt her lips part as realization dawned on her. “No wonder you don’t bother with tact and have so little tolerance. You spent too long holding back words and crushing your emotions.”
“I guess you reach a point where you’re just done with toning down your responses.”
“You sure never did it with me,” she muttered, fisting the bottom of his tee.
“You didn’t need me to. It was one of the reasons I was comfortable around you—though you probably wouldn’t have guessed that. No matter what I said or did, you didn’t get upset or cower or yell or anything. It was freeing. I could just be who I was around you. I think you get how that can mean something to a person.”
She swallowed. “I get it.”
Slipping his hands from her shoulders to the sides of her neck, he said, “Come here.” He tugged her forward, and their mouths met in a slow, languorous kiss that made her toes curl. Pretty soon after, he used his fingers to shove her into an orgasm that had her toes curling all over again. She then rode him right there on the sofa, impaling herself on his cock over and over until they were both engulfed by a release that made their thoughts splinter.
Oblivion was a marvelous place.
Picking up yet another bat from the rec center’s outdoor tennis court at closing time the following day, Bailey flicked Camden a look. “Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I told him. If you’d shared our past history with someone, I’d want to be made aware of it.” A cool breeze swept over her, ruffling her hair and gently shaking the wire fence separating the court from the parking lot adjacent to it.
Noticing that Camden was eyeing her closely, she frowned. “What?”
He shrugged. “I’m just surprised you told me. It’s not often you put yourself in other people’s shoes and imagine how they’d feel.” He grabbed a tennis ball from the ground. “Your sense of empathy isn’t exactly fully developed.”
