by KC Falls
"I assumed you were just baiting me. Surely you know I'm not going to let you take some menial job that is going to run your life and take up all your time."
"What do you mean 'you're not going to let me'?"
"Just that. For god's sake, Raina, do you think I'm going to just allow you to float away from me?'
I was caught between the urge to slap his face for assuming he could dictate my life to me and the desire to have him tell me how he intended to keep me from 'floating away'.
"What do you suggest I do?"
He brought his hand under my chin and lifted my face to his. "I suggest that after our final Saturday night performance, we skip the godawful cast party and get on my plane headed…I don't know yet, but somewhere spectacular. After we have fucked each other senseless and are at the brink of a passion induced coma, I suggest that we put our heads together and figure out something you'd like to do with yourself when your legs aren't wrapped around some part of my anatomy."
When I didn't answer immediately he went on.
"I assume you won't allow me to just 'keep' you." I shook my head. "I thought not. Marjorie and Donald would disapprove at any rate and that won't do. So that leaves a number of options. You could work for me…"
"Doing what?" I shook my head again. "I don't think that's a very good option."
"How about a business? Or a consultancy? Or freelance writing--I'll buy whatever you produce! Or websites. There are endless possibilities."
"You make it sound easy."
"It is easy. We'll sort it out on our vacation."
"You certainly manage to take plenty of vacations."
"I'm filthy rich and self employed. It's a beautiful thing."
"Modest, too."
"Modesty is overrated." He burst into a big grin. "Ah-ha! I've just hit on where we're going to go on vacation."
"Where?"
"So you agree that we're going on vacation after the play?'
"That was a trap."
"Effective, wasn't it?"
"Where, Tristan?"
"Somewhere where modesty is not permitted. Let it be my secret."
***
Tristan went into New York on Sunday night, after the matinee performance wrapped up. Tom had asked for a run through on Wednesday night to refresh the cast before the last Thursday performance but that met with universal thumbs down. All the men were tying up the loose ends of their summer and their minds were switching into 'work mode'. They'd all be using the few days in between the weekend performances to wrap up last minute things they needed to do to close their houses and return to the city as soon as they closed the last play of the season.
Monday night Mom called to give me an update and let me know that they had decided to return to the city a few days earlier.
"Your Tristan has been a godsend. For some reason he seems to be the only person your father has met in years who's able to break through that man's pigheadedness."
"I wouldn't call him 'mine', Mom. But I'm glad he's on our side."
"His private detective has been up to see us and debriefed us on what he's learned about the men who attacked Don."
"And?"
"They're bad business. I wouldn't say your father is scared, because other than the time you girls got lost in Manhattan I've never seen him scared, but he has accepted that this is something he can't just handle with his fists and maybe a wrench."
"So, what's the plan?"
"Tristan's man, Kwan--what a nice young fellow--has gotten a couple of his associates who'll be staying with us until we're satisfied that the threat has been 'neutralized' as they put it. I guess that means arrested."
"That's one thing it means."
Mom chose to ignore the implications. "Tristan has had a company 'secure' the house in Park Slope. I guess I'll find out what that means when I get home."
"Well, I've been telling you for years to put bars on the street level windows so I hope that's part of it."
"I hate bars."
"So, you feel pretty safe?"
"Yes and no. All of the fuss has made me realize that this is a serious situation."
"Better to know rather than have something more or worse happen to Dad."
"You're right. Without Tristan's help and Mr. Archie we'd be much easier targets."
I thought it was a good time to bring up my trip with Tristan. "Mom, Tristan and I are going away for a few days after the play closes. Is that okay with you?"
She laughed. "Since when do you ask my permission to go off somewhere?"
"Since I found out you are in danger, that's when."
"You go. There's nothing your presence is going to do to help. In fact, you'll be one less body to worry about."
"That's what Tristan thinks, too."
"Where are you going?"
"It's a secret…but Tristan told me to bring my passport."
"That sounds exciting."
"With Tristan, pretty much everything is."
***
The lights at Teterboro airport spread out below us. I was on the second helicopter ride of my life. The thrill hadn't worn off. After we landed a speedy little golf cart dropped us off at Tristan's plane. Once again, I wasn't quite prepared for what awaited me. He told me we were taking his jet, but I hadn't really been expecting to climb stairs into a plane the size of a commercial airliner.
Tristan had also been very specific about the fact that I was to bring nothing with me other than my passport. Nothing at all.
"This trip marks a new beginning and I want everything fresh and perfect," he had said. "Will you trust me to see that you're properly taken care of?" When I opened my mouth to protest that it wasn't about trust, he continued. "Tell me you'll take the risk…"
It wasn't about the clothes or the make-up I would leave behind and he knew it. He knew how vulnerable a woman would feel getting on a plane to an undisclosed location without her things. He wanted that vulnerability handed to him. He was testing me and testing himself against me.
The plane had a spacious salon, dining area and open kitchen. It was furnished in a sleek, modern design and reminded me a little of a high end recreational vehicle, which I suppose it was. Only this RV was bigger and it flew.
He gave me the grand tour and I tried very hard not to act like a bedazzled child. Of course I knew it was possible to have a full sized bedroom and a Jacuzzi tub on an aircraft. I just never thought I'd be standing at the foot of a king-sized bed getting ready to take off into the night sky with a man who was literally changing my life in the most dramatic possible way.
The pilot announced that it was time to take our seats.
"You mean that even on a private plane like this you have to buckle up?" I asked as we settled into one of the dove gray leather sofas and found the belts.
"I always want to keep you safe. You know that, don't you? There are so many things that we can't control. So many unknowns. Even a small danger can create a big risk." He tightened the belt low on my hips and I saw a flash of sadness cross his face.
I took his hand in mine. It was my turn to ask for his trust. "I'll stay safe, Tristan. I won't desert you. Nothing will happen to me. I'll be here…for you."
The lights in the cabin dimmed and the plane roared up into the star sprinkled sky. As our lips met I knew we were sealing an unspoken bargain that was yet to be truly defined. It was a promise to share something, but the 'something' had soft focused edges. There were still secrets that hid behind fleeting shadowy boundaries of the new born us.
No matter what the future held for us, Tristan had forever altered what I thought I was capable of feeling about a man, what I was capable of doing with a man. He had changed my world in ways subtle and profound. I didn't know our final destination and perhaps that was a good thing. I thought maybe it was true about the importance of the journey. As the plane reached higher in the sky, I promised myself I was going to enjoy the ride.
###
More From K.C. Falls
&n
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Year of the Billionaire Series Continues:
Taking his Risk (Part 2)
I was hurtling across the ocean, a mile high, destination unknown. I'd brought a passport and nothing else.
He seemed determined to make everything in my life brand new. He revealed me, peeling back layer after layer until all that was left was my raw intimate core. Yet, I hardly knew him.
Crazy is a pretty good word for the kind of uncertainty that comes with a man like Tristan King. I never knew what the day would bring, but I began to expect surprises. That was the biggest problem. Managing my expectations with a man who'd told me I couldn't have any.
For a regular girl, falling for a man like him was taking a very big chance. Was it really possible to love one day at a time?
Keeping His Promise (Part 3)
Just carrying a million dollars around is exhausting. Paying my mother's ransom was a relief but I had too much time to think about Tristan on that ferry ride. He was more than I had dared hope for and less than I deserved.
I underestimated his power and didn't give him nearly enough credit for determination. He had me on his jet again, flying high and wanting him. Consequences be damned.
Who could be prepared for what he had to say? I wasn't going to hold him to the promise he intended to keep. When he opened the heavy door to his heart we both knew it would change what we had. Trouble is, I still didn't have a word for what it is we had.
Our bodies tended to do all the talking. Sometimes, it seemed to me there wasn't much left to say.
WET Series
Hooked (Part 1)
Morgan Wolf is a complicated man living an uncomplicated life on a mega yacht he doesn’t own. He lets women believe what they think they see. It’s easier that way. No woman would want the truth he’s never shared.
Lara Lamb is sailing away from what she thought she wanted. Because she wanted the wrong things and always for the wrong reason.
Lara sees Morgan for what he is: a rich, shallow Peter Pan who happens to have a cute monkey. Trouble is she’s only right about the monkey.
She’s everything Morgan never wanted. She makes the easy way look like the coward’s way. Ready to take the chance, Morgan struggles with how to let Lara closer than anyone’s ever been. Will his unspeakable wounds be too deep for her to bear?
Wrecked (Part 2)
What do you do when you can’t run away?
Lara doesn’t trust herself and Morgan can’t remember when he trusted anyone.
They were sailing smoothly toward each other on a sweet voyage of discovery. Then Morgan got knocked back by a wave of panic from his past that he never got to explain.
A freak encounter with a thousand pound fish left Morgan delirious and Lara even more confused. The demons that swirl around his fevered head hint at a hell Lara is afraid to understand.
Stuck on a boat with a wounded man she no longer thinks she knows, Lara’s convinced she’s added another sad page to her book of mistakes.
Rescued (Part 3)
Sometimes when everything’s lost, it’s just the beginning.
Tossed by a storm, torn by grief, and with his world turned upside down, Morgan clings to the one woman he knows can bring some peace into the chaos that his life has become—Lara.
It’s not easy to love a complicated man. It’s even harder when he builds a maze around his heart.
She’s looking for answers but life just keeps throwing more questions at them both. There’s a dead sister who is now alive, ashes in the ocean and a tiny grave on a lonely beach.
Lara and Morgan have learned that sorrow often follows joy and love isn’t always enough to keep it in the shadows.
Brotherhood of Souls Series
Brothers
(Brotherhood of Souls #1)
Two families meet and collide in the heat of Carolina Low Country in this steamy beginning to the Brotherhood of Souls Series. This free book introduces you to their world.
Beauville is a town that's late to the 21st century. The Covingtons don't color out of the lines. The Souls don't have any lines.
Darren and his brothers are fixtures in the lives of Sarah Covington. From the day he rode up her driveway when she was just a girl to the horrible day he left her at eighteen, Darren's marks on Sarah's life filling her coming of age with passion, desire and the frustration that comes from wanting someone you cannot have.
The quartet of wild boys each have their own set of devils to conquer. In Brothers, you are introduced to the world of the Souls and the girls who will be tangled up in the saga of rebellion and adventure as their lives unfold.
Darren
(Brotherhood of Souls #2)
Sarah Covington has known Darren Soul since she was eleven. He blasted between her driveway's live oaks on a screaming crotch rocket and changed her world. Five years later he kissed her. Seven years on, he did a whole lot more than kiss her. She never had the chance to tell him the truth about that night.
Sarah returns to Beauville, S.C. to confront her father's impending death. She learns that the plantation that has been in her family for hundreds of years is inches away from foreclosure. Six years and nine months after the last mortifying time she saw him, Darren saunters in like Sir Galahad, ready to save the day. Except he can't.
Old antagonism dies hard, but so does an attraction that Sarah knew even before she could name it. Sarah can't bring herself to trust his motives or her judgement.
When the old house yields up an unpredictable solution to its own problem, Sarah faces decisions that will influence the rest of her life. Choosing to make them alone may cost her dearly.
This is a stand-alone, full length erotic romance novel. Others in the Soul Family series will follow in 2015. Meant for mature readers, this book includes scenes with explicit language and graphic erotic descriptions.
Wyatt
(Brotherhood of Souls #4)
A brothel, an internet cafe and a sushi bar may seem like a bizarre combination. But Elaine Covington made her own rules and a lot of lucky guesses when she created Beau Cafe, the most popular gathering place for geeks east of the Silicon Valley. Elaine was one of those millennials who became a new adult with a lot of luck and talent on her side.
When the enigmatic guru known only as 'William' came to her looking for a few good 'internet mercenaries', he brought a tetra-byte's worth of trouble along with him. His genius was impressive and his skill as a ultimate fighter was a also a surprise. He was also by far the hottest mutha ever to set foot in Elaine's little nerd paradise.
Maybe it was because he was an American and she was tired of being a cultural stranger that kicked the whole little love story off. Maybe it was because he was tall and dark and reminded her of a faded memory that somehow tickled the lust for alpha male arms around her for once.
He made her homesick. He made her vulnerable and then he protected her. When he walked through her door, a steamroller of desire followed him. Swept into William's tangled connections with the dark world of human trafficking, Elaine foolishly allows lust to conquer reason until she learns a secret so shocking it turns her world around.
Noah
(Brotherhood of Souls #5)
Growing up the youngest in a tribe of strong alpha males, Noah Soul always felt he had something to prove. His life had been one testosterone laden struggle from the start. His entire existence had been one big game of catch up. Becoming something of a local legend as a firefighter hero who took brave chances didn't make a dent in his competitive spirit. What he didn't understand was that the only rival that really existed was himself.
Never a real member of the Southern or any other particular style of life, Joy Carpenter led a chaotic and nomadic childhood, an innocent bystander to the train wreck of her mother's serial and abusive trio of marriages.
By the time Dad number three came on the scene, Joy was a pudgy high school kid whose biggest goal in life was to stay invisible. All that changed when she went to college, dumped academia and found her calling as an EMT.
When Joy meets Noah it's on equal ground as a first responder in the town of his birth. It's a place Joy hadn't planned on revisiting, ever. As circumstance and opportunity throw the pair together Joy realizes that Noah is not simply an arrogant alpha hell-bent on saving anyone but himself. He's also her chance to fill an empty place inside her that no amount of professional success can satisfy.
A Hero's Love Story
A Driven Hero (Part 1)
I married a man with peculiar taste in whores. I didn't see it coming. I was a shattered survivor. I didn't trust myself or anyone else.
Then I met a man who needed my trust as much as I needed his. His subtle limp was not the only scar he bore.
Finding myself naked beside him was inevitable. The strength I found there revitalized me. The soul-deep longing he inspired brought me back to life. His penetrating wounds were a gift that only I was allowed to share.
He taught me how much loyalty costs.
A Damaged Hero (Part 2)
Don't ever wait to say I love you. You might not get another chance.
He was adrift in a coma without the strength of my love for him and all because I could not say the words. Some nasty clawed demon snatched my throat and held me back and I might never have another chance.
I gave all that I am and all I can be to a man who didn't remember who I was. He was a stranger. What we had just begun was only a memory for me.
I faltered. I was afraid. I didn't know if I could love the new Reggie as I had loved the old one. My blessed body found a way. His cursed mind destroyed it.