by B. B. Reid
“Blank, babe.”
“So he just appeared out of thin air?”
“The only way you can keep someone a secret is if they want to be kept a secret or if they aren’t alive to tell you otherwise.”
“You think the mother’s dead?”
“Why not? Ten years and no trace of her?”
“So there would be record of her death.”
“Without a name, how would we find it?”
“Someone has to know something about who Mitch was dating.”
“Not necessarily…”
‘What do you mean?”
“Rich guys like that change women more than they change their underwear. She could have been just another notch on his belt – used and invisible.”
“The only person who would know is John but I’ve never even seen the guy. He’s never around,” I thought long and hard before a thought occurred to me. “Where are they from? If they were from a place like Six Forks it wouldn’t be nearly impossible to figure out. People gossip.”
“Beauty and brains. My hero,” he chuckled.
“Some days I don’t feel so smart…”
“That’s because you let your vagina do the talking, babe.” He quickly tapped his keyboards and only after a few minutes he came across something. “He’s from Camden. That’s only a two hour drive.”
“So it’s close.”
“You aren’t seriously thinking about going there are you?”
“Why not?”
“Maybe because this whole family seems shady as fuck? You can’t just show up on someone’s doorstep and starting asking questions about something they obviously kept so hard to bury. Think about it, beautiful…Keiran was a child when he was found…he didn’t hide all this himself.”
I thought hard about what he said but knew I didn’t have a choice. This was becoming more than just a need for revenge. I wanted answers. I needed answers. “What else can I do?”
Instead of replying he went back to typing. “It looks like he had a housekeeper.”
“How do you know that?”
“Her resume was uploaded on this social website for professionals who use it to make connections.” He studied the resume and then turned to look up at me. “What month is Keiran’s birthday?”
“February, I think.” I shrugged nonchalantly when he grinned at me with a cheeky expression.
“You think?”
“Ok, I know.”
“Well it looks like Mrs. Jenkins was dismissed.”
“When?”
“Nine months before he was born,” he answered dryly.
“Shit! Well maybe we can find out where his father disappeared? No one just leaves all that wealth behind.”
“On it. But I got to head back. My parents are going to kill me if I stay for much longer,” he said as he packed up his computer.
“Thanks, for everything, Jesse. I know you want to do more but I can’t let anyone fight my battle – not anymore.”
“Just promise, you’ll be careful.”
“I’m not so good with promises, Jesse.” Not after the two most important people in my life broke theirs…
“Right. Catch you later.” He gave me one last hug and was gone.
* * *
Thunder rolled and lighting flashed, lighting up my bedroom. The setting was so cliché and one straight out of a horror movie, especially when it illuminated the tall figure standing across the room. I came fully awake and jumped when I realized I wasn’t dreaming and someone was actually in my room. His back was turned and I guess I made a sound because he suddenly turned.
It was Keiran. He was standing there, drenched and soaking from the rain. His shirt was plastered to his skin outlining his chest and abs. His breathing was deep and uneven.
“What are you doing here?”
“Was it here?”
“What?” I asked, confused.
“Did you fuck him on your bed?” he growled. His voice penetrated my senses making by body quake with awareness.
“What the hell are you talking about, Keiran? Get out of my house!” He moved too fast. I was trapped between the mattress and his hard body and my trembling doubled.
“Why was Jesse here and think twice before you let a lie pass between those beautiful, pouty lips of yours? I’m not keen on being nice to you right now.” We stared at each other, letting his words and the meaning settle around us. The only sound that could be heard was our deep erratic breathing. “I’ll ask you again, Monroe. Did you fuck him?”
“I didn’t do anything with anybody and if I did, it’s none of your business. I don’t belong to you. I. Never. Did!”
His bright grey eyes blackened as the brewing storm finally broke and raged harsher than the one outside. “No. But you will.”
That was the only warning before his lips slammed onto mine. The sound of surprise I made opened me up to his passions as his tongue penetrated my lips. I couldn’t help but welcome the taste of him. I crave it more each time.
Before I could rethink it, I was wrapping my arms around his neck and surrendering to the need. My clothes were torn away until I was left naked under his dark gaze. His gaze remained locked with mine as he lowered his head between my shaking thighs. He finally looked away to stare at the wet heat between my legs. I shifted, fighting the urge to beg for his mouth on
me as his lips lifted in a predatory grin. Suddenly, I remembered the fear I’ve kept close all these years as it returned. I didn’t think I could handle him like this.
“Don’t look at me like that, baby. I’m not stopping. Now say you want it.”
Please don’t stop, I thought. “I want you,” I uttered without hesitation. I immediately felt his hot mouth and tongue on me. I moaned and writhed as he devoured me. However, the buildup of desire was much more powerful than the pleasure I felt from his tongue. I needed more.
I gripped his hair in desperation, searching for what was missing until I was drowning in tears. Suddenly I was turning and then I was upright. I looked down at Keiran underneath me as I straddled his face.
“Ride my face, baby. Take what you need.”
So I did. Hard and fast. I felt his hands grip my ass and pull me deeper onto his tongue. It caressed me until I shattered. I was still shaking when I was flipped onto my back. I opened my eyes to find Keiran kneeling before me, watching me with an intense look in his eyes.
His hand reached for his shirt and then it was gone. I was staring at his chest and followed the thin line of hair that trailed from his belly button and disappeared into his shorts and I licked my lips in anticipation. He lowered his shorts slowly and my breath caught in my throat when his erection finally escaped. It strained toward me, begging for me to touch. He quickly slipped on protection while staring at me with a dark look in his eyes.
I reached out for him but his hardened gaze froze my movement. “Put your hand down,” he ordered then wrapped his hand around his length. “Give me what I want and all this is yours.”
“Maybe I don’t want it,” I teased.
“Maybe the fact that you just came all over my face says different.”
“I can always call someone else.”
I was eating the bed sheets with my ass in the air before I could blink. “Don’t fuck with me when my dick is out Monroe. Give me what I want.”
I felt him rest his pulsing cock against my entrance, teasing me with light thrusts that slid his hardness against my folds.
“I don’t know what you want!” I cried.
“You do.” He answered simply continuing his torture on my senses.
“Please…I can’t.”
“Not even for this?” He gripped my hips tighter and slid the head inside. My pussy immediately gripped and sucked in him.
“I want it,” I moaned hoping it would appease him.
“I know you want it,” he whispered seductively. “I want it too…I want all of it.” It was then that I knew what he was asking for.
My complete su
rrender.
I had to be his.
I wanted to be his.
“I’m yours,” I whispered, a feeling of lightness taking over as if a weight had been lifted. I felt complete even though I knew it was a lie.
“Say it again,” he growled. His body poised to take mine.
“I’m yours. Only yours.” I turned my head around to look deep into his eyes. “Fuck me,” I whispered, desperately, holding his gaze with mine.
The force of his thrust shattered my senses as he slammed into me without warning and my scream ripped through the air. His head was buried in my neck, pressing soothing kisses against my skin. I locked his lips with mine as our hunger took over and our kiss became deeper.
“Fuck, baby,” he groaned when my walls contracted around his cock. His hips shifted and he began thrusting, slowly inside me. I could tell he was holding back for some reason. “Does that feel good?”
“Yes,” I moaned. “More.” I knew I sounded like a bitch in heat but I was too drunk off him to care.
“More?” he repeated. “Like this?” His thrusts picked up speed until he was pounding inside me. He seemed to always know just what I needed even when I didn’t know myself. “Lake…” I creamed at the sound of my name on his lips.
“Yes.”
“Say my name, Lake. I want to fucking hear it.”
“Keiran.” His name was caught on a scream when he nearly lifted my knees off the bed with a single hard thrust.
“You’re mine,” he growled. I felt my orgasm approaching and grew desperate for the end and the pleasure that came with it. Keiran was driving me insane under his possession. His groans became louder and I knew he was about to come and I craved it. “Come with me, baby.” His finger found my clit and worked the bundle of nerves until I felt my body seize and my belly quiver. My long, guttural scream and his roar echoed throughout the room as the powerful orgasm took over us both.
Keiran took me once more before he left the bedroom, leaving me tired and overworked on the bed. I thought about the love we just made and shivered. It was fierce and it was brutal but it was us. I loved it.
He came back after a few minutes and cleaned me up but didn’t rejoin me on the bed. I watched him dress in silence as I listened to the storm still rage outside, lost in my own thoughts. Once the sex fog cleared out of my mind I remembered that sleeping with him again wasn’t part of the plan. Just like the shower, I got caught in the moment. I was also pissed that he was once again doing a hit and run.
What did you expect Lake? Cuddling under the covers? Pillow talk?
“I’m going to ask you something and I’m only going to ask you once,” he said as he walked across the room. The tone of his voice was sharp and I instantly knew why when he picked up the only thing lying on top of my desk. My heart stopped, when he asked, “Where the fuck did you get this?”
“I can explain,” I said lamely. I was kicking my own ass for leaving the picture on the desk. After Jesse left, I passed out from mental exhaustion. Digging into Keiran’s past was more complicated than I originally thought.
“I’m counting on it.”
“I don’t know.”
“Lake,” he growled.
“I’m serious! I don’t know. I think whoever broke into my house that night left the picture. It was in a birthday card that was addressed to me.”
“Bullshit. That was a month ago. Why didn’t you say something?”
“Because…I –”
“Because you wanted to use it against me,” he said all to calmly. It immediately made me wary. Where was the shouting? Where was the anger?
“You’re being ridiculous.” I sat up and pulled the covers around my naked body, no longer feeling as comfortable being in the nude. I felt vulnerable enough with his threatening stare bearing down on me.
“Am I?” he asked.
“How would I even know the picture involved you?” Keeping his eyes locked with mine, he shoved his fist in his pocket and pulled it back out immediately. I thought it was odd that he did that until he opened his fist and let the gold locket dangle between his fingers.
“This look familiar?”
“It’s starting to,” I said petulantly. I knew I was caught and truth be told, I was scared but I wouldn’t let him see it.
“How about if I wrap this around your neck and strangle the fuck out of you?”
I jumped from the bed, forgetting about my naked state and the words were spewing out of my mouth before I even knew what I was going to say.
“Go ahead and do it! You’ve been threatening to kill me since we were kids! Sometimes I wish you would have just put me out of the misery you caused me!” My chest was heaving up and down while he watched on silently. “Yes, I was going to find out the story behind that picture, the story behind you, and the story behind the past ten damn years and I was going to use it to make you pay for what you’ve done to me.”
His eyes narrowed and his voice filled with venom as he asked, “What I’ve done to you?”
“I never did anything to you. I didn’t deserve your hatred.”
“That may be so,” he said nonchalantly and shrugged, “but that doesn’t mean you didn’t affect me because you did.”
“Affect you how?”
“You made me realize how fucked up I was or...am.”
“Why is that a reason to hate me? I was seven, Keiran. I didn’t even know you!”
“It didn’t matter. I blamed you for making me realize that so hurting you became a way for me to accept who I was. Ten years ago I was serious when I said I was going to kill you but then hurting you became an addiction and I couldn’t stop.”
“If it was fear that you wanted, why only target me? There are so many people who are afraid of you.”
“None like you.”
“Keiran, you’re sick.” Instead of anger, I was filled with pity and empathy for him. It couldn’t be easy being that type of person.
“I’m not sick, Lake. I was just doing all that I’ve ever known.” I still couldn’t imagine what could turn an innocent child into someone so dark.
“J – Jesse found these articles today. I know your mother abandoned you when you were eight.”
“How did he find that? It’s supposed to be gone – all of it.”
“He’s good at finding things.”
“I see.”
“So help me see. What happened to you?”
“What did the article say?” I frowned at his question. He didn’t look angry or sad about me finding out his history. Instead he looked curious.
“Not much. It said that John took you in and that Mitch Masters is your father. It said nothing about your mother. Who is she?”
“My mother was a prostitute and a drug addict. She left me with my uncle so she could go off and die.” He tried to mask it but I heard the contempt in his voice when he spoke about his mother but his still held no emotion.
“What about the girl in the photo?” His eyes clouded over as he looked back down at the picture.
“She’s no one,” he replied. I could hear the bitterness in his voice. “She was weak.” The contempt in his voice spurred my next question.
“So what happened to her?” He had to know something considering he had he locket. Could he have been there when she died?
“I killed her.” As much as I was hoping for honesty I didn’t actually expect him to be so honest. He just admitted to murdering someone yet he was so casual about it.
“Why?” I asked reluctantly. My voice shook but I managed to hide most of it.
“Because I couldn’t save her.” His eyes had glossed over with some unnamed emotion when he spoke. It was a look I’d never seen on Keiran’s face before. It was regret.
“Save her from what?” His beeping phone interrupted whatever he would or wouldn’t have said. When he spit out a harsh curse and his face transformed into a savage mask my attention shifted to whatever held his attention now.
“What is it?” I cou
ldn’t help asking.
“Reynolds made bail.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Chapter Twenty-One
The sunlight on my skin woke me up and I swear I could hear the birds chirping outside and I felt like singing. I’m such a dork. I stretched and my body felt sore in all the right places and remembering how it got like brought a smile to face.
“Good morning, baby.”
I was surprised to hear his voice even though I knew he stayed the night. After we found out that Trevor was out – probably thanks to his dad – I’d wordlessly gotten back in bed and closed my eyes, wishing for sleep to come quickly. I told myself I didn’t care what Keiran did or where he went, but when he climbed into bed and spooned me from behind, my heart did jumping jacks all over my chest.
I finally opened my eyes and found him sitting on the floor next to the bed. His knees were bent with his arms draped across them. He wore an intense expression on his face and I wondered what he’d been thinking.
“Why are you on the floor?”
“You kept kicking me. I nearly fell off the bed…and you snore.”
“I do not!” I threw a pillow at him and then realized I had no way to hide my flushed cheeks. He laughed when he caught the pillow.
“You’re pretty wild.”
“Well I’m awake now. So come on.” I patted the bed and looked at him with a look that I prayed was seductive. He smiled sheepishly and shook his head.
“I’ve created a monster. We don’t have time for the bed.” He stood up and headed for the door and I pouted. “But if you come get your sexy ass in the shower with me I’ll give your first quickie,” he tossed over his shoulder before leaving.
I wasted no time hopping out of the bed and running after him. I already decided sometime between him pounding me against the shower wall and my screaming orgasm that it was my favorite place to have sex.
Not long after, we were downstairs making breakfast when he said, “I want you to stop digging into my past.”
“I can’t do that,” I said without looking at him. I heard him slam his cup down and felt his eyes burning through me.
