Keeping Secrets (The Essien Trilogy, #1)

by Kiru Taye

  The thought emboldened her. “Look, Mr Whatever-your-name-is, I’m not going to divorce Felix. I love him. In fact, we’re having a baby.”

  “So it’s true. You are pregnant.”

  Her spine prickled that he already knew something only few members of the family knew. A scan a week ago had dated the pregnancy and confirmed the baby to be growing normally. They had celebrated after Felix had confessed his fear. His mother had died due to the complications of an ectopic pregnancy. It had been discovered too late. Her heart had ached for the young boy he’d been then and also for the man who obviously still bore the emotional scars of that loss.

  And her love for him had grown ten-fold. Nothing could make her walk away when her husband obviously wanted her and baby.

  “I am. Three months and counting,” she said with a tight smile.

  “You shouldn’t have done that, bitch.” She couldn't miss the menacing anger in the man's voice. “You're going to pay for crossing me.”

  The phone line went dead. Her body trembled and she swayed on her feet.

  Fingers tapped her shoulders and she jumped around.

  Kola caught her, steady hands on her shoulders.

  “Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. Are you okay?” he asked, worry lines on his dark face.

  “I’m fine. Is Felix in the car?” she asked, suddenly needing to see him and hold him close. She had missed him these few days. The nights had been lonely and cold without his warm arms around her. She missed his all-too-male scent, his bone-melting laughter, his magical, sizzling touch, and his warm, hard body.

  “No. He had a meeting he couldn’t cancel.” The bodyguard took her carry-on case.

  “Oh.” Disappointment sagged her shoulders but she held her head high and headed to the car.

  Ebony relaxed back into the soft leather of the car seat and closed her eyes for the drive back to Ikoyi. While the nausea had subsided, she was easily exhausted. In no time, the gentle vibrations of the car lulled her into a shallow nap.

  As the car pulled through the electric gates, her body hummed with the excitement of seeing the man she loved. Taking her compact out of her bag, she dabbed powder on her face to wipe the shine and loosened her knot, letting her hair fall loose and wavy down her back, the way Felix liked it.

  When Kola opened the car door for her, she stepped out, straightening her skirt suit. On second thought, she stopped.

  “Kola, please hold this.” She handed the silent giant of a man her handbag before taking off her jacket and draping it over her arm. Bag back on arm, she walked to the front door.

  Ebony opened it and froze.

  The vision in the cool hallway smacked her across the face. She blinked several times, spine stiffened in shock.

  Felix, in an embrace with Helen Douglas. Helen Douglas! What was the woman doing in her home? They both turned to look at her as she entered the hallway, Felix’s expression one of unaffected disdain. Helen looked like the cat that got the cream.

  For a moment, Ebony couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t speak. She just watched in horrified dismay as Felix stepped away from Helen to come give her a brief kiss on the cheek.

  “Welcome home, darling,” he drawled.

  Ebony could have sworn there lay a hint of sarcasm the way he said “darling.” Come to think of it, that was a new word for him. She looked up sharply and realised he was being sarcastic as his dark brow shot upwards.

  “You remember Helen?”

  “Hi, Ebony.” Helen gave her a cursory glance before turning to Felix. “Thank you for your time today,” she purred as she gave Felix a kiss on the lips. “It was absolutely pleasurable. I look forward to our meeting next week.”

  “Sure. I’ll walk you to the car,” he said before they both walked out, leaving Ebony standing on the same spot with shock.

  Her bag dropping onto the marble floor snapped her out of the stupor. Calmly, she picked it up and walked into Felix’s office to wait for him. There had to be a good explanation for what she’d just seen and she wanted to hear it. The image of Helen’s arms draped around Felix’s body kept swirling in her head, sickening her by the minute. By the time Felix walked back into his office, she had gone from being sick to boiling with rage.

  “What was that woman doing in this house?” She got it out even before he reached his desk, her finger pointing in the direction he’d just come from.

  Felix shrugged as he walked past her. “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m working from home at the moment. So my meetings are held here. She did me a favour by coming here.”

  He didn’t sit down. Instead, he walked to the window and stared out onto the terrace.

  “So what was she doing all over you? It didn’t look to me like just two business associates ending a meeting.”

  “Are you jealous, Ebony?” He turned to look at her sardonically.

  She snorted. “Of course not.” She might be feeling slightly envious but wasn’t about to admit it.

  “I didn’t think so, too. Not that you’d care, anyway.” He shrugged again, turning back to the window.

  His nonchalant attitude wound her up. “What is that supposed to mean? Of course I care. You are my husband.”

  “You should have thought about that before you decided to swan off to Abuja. It’s obvious to me this marriage means less to you than I thought.”

  How did this suddenly turn out to be her fault? Felix was the one who had been caught in an embrace with Miss sex-on-legs in their home. She’d been in Abuja working.

  “Don’t be ridiculous. You know very well I couldn’t avoid the trip. It was an important meeting.”

  “More important than me or our baby.”

  “Felix, you know that’s not true.” She stood up and walked over to him. “I care about you and this baby.” She rubbed her flat belly.

  He swivelled around to face her, his expression devoid of any emotions.

  “Ebony, you don’t have to pretend to me any longer. I know,” he said coldly, his eyes like black ice.

  She gasped, her heart stopping momentarily. Fear swarmed her. This spelled nothing good. What did he know?

  “This marriage is a sham. You’re only playing the doting wife because I’m paying you to do it. You sure fooled me.” He closed in on her, his fingertip trailing down her cheek, making it tingle. His intense heat surrounding her. “Was it all an act, I wonder?”

  His lips descended on hers before she could reply, his tongue pushing past her open lips into the depths of her mouth. She wanted to still her body, to fight her response, but failed miserably. Heat swarmed her, her bones melting into Felix’s hard heat. His tongue ravaged her. She clung onto his shoulder to stop herself melting into a pool on the floor.

  She returned the kiss fervently. She had missed him these past few days and wanted him, wanted to reconnect with him. He pushed her until the back of her thighs hit his desk.

  He lifted his head and looked at her, his eyes smouldering with passion.

  “I didn’t think so,” he whispered with need as he kissed her neck, sending more sensation shooting to her belly. “You want me to do this. Yes?”

  Unable to speak, she nodded as she tried desperately to draw in breath. All of a sudden, there didn’t seem to be enough air in the room.

  “And this.” He took her nipple into his mouth and sucked and she gasped with pleasure. Even through the fabric of her shirt and bra, she could still feel the wet heat of his tongue swirling around her taut and sensitive nipple.

  “Yes.”

  His hands circled her waist, lifting her onto the desk. Her skirt rode up her thighs as Felix stood between her legs. Rage and passion melded together in her veins as he leaned into her. She couldn’t even remember why she was mad at him. The fire in her blood needed slaking.

  The hardness of this erection pushed through his trousers at her already wet core. He tugged at her shirt, popping the buttons in the process. They went flying all over the place. He threw the now da
maged shirt on the floor and her bra came off next.

  Wanting to feel him throb against her palm, she reached for the buckle of his belt. He grabbed her hands, securing them behind her back.

  He returned to sucking, licking, and nipping her aching breasts and nipples alternatively as she went mindless with sensation. She wasn’t even aware of when he took her skirt off. Only knew when his fingers touched her core, slipping into her, causing her womb to contract in pleasure. Their breaths intermingled as he kissed her again, his tongue mimicking his fingers’ actions within her. When her climax came, it caught her unawares, covering her body in feverish heat.

  A buzzing phone brought her back down to reality. Felix uttered a low curse, straightened, and picked up the phone on his desk.

  “I have to take this. Get dressed.”

  He picked up her clothes from the floor and tossed them in her direction without even looking at her. The door slammed behind her departing husband, leaving her to wonder what the hell just happened.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Felix kicked out even harder as he swam the length of the swimming pool recessed farther back, next to the pool house in the substantial land surrounding his property. He now understood why he’d bought this house when he’d had to escape from Ebony earlier.

  Damn it.

  That phone call had saved him. He’d been so close to taking her right there and then on his desk when she’d screamed his name as she climaxed.

  From the moment she’d walked in the front door, he’d known he was in trouble. She looked sexy as sin with her fiery hair cascading down her back, her shirt buttons undone at the top, revealing smooth, silky skin and a hint of black lace, her feet encased in impossibly high heels that extended her already long legs to heaven. His body had responded instantly. He had to stop himself at just kissing her cheeks. If his lips had connected with hers, he would have taken her there against that hallway wall.

  Ebony had thought he’d been interested in Helen. Ironic. She obviously had no clue. He’d been with Helen for over an hour and the only woman in his head had been Ebony. Ms. Douglas might use and dress all her physical assets in a provocative way to attract attention, but she didn’t hold a candle to his wife. Ebony’s subtle, almost retiring, yet sassy elegance had already stolen his attention from the moment he opened his eyes in that hospital suite weeks ago. No other woman had stirred him so overpoweringly before or since then.

  This left him feeling very aggravated.

  He pushed off against the wall of the pool and turned to do another lap. Swimming proved the only safe workout he could do without the help of someone else. What he needed to do was take out his frustrations with his sparring partner.

  More expletives escaped his lips as he got more wound up about his predicament. Who was he kidding? What he wanted to do was strip away all of Ebony’s veneer, have her writhing underneath him while he sank into her deep and wet core again and again. To have her scream his name over and over. So that he knew that she wanted him as much as he wanted her. And not because of any arrangement they might have made.

  How had he gotten himself so entangled? Where had Ebony learned such good acting skills? A wonder she hadn’t made a career out it. For a while, he’d been convinced he had a genuine marriage. That they’d met and it had been an instant attraction. He’d actually thought this was it for him—he’d actually met someone he could live with, someone he could trust.

  Until he’d found out she wasn’t even trustworthy. She had kept secrets from him; first their marriage arrangement, then the pregnancy. What else could she be hiding? He knew there had to be something else. Only a matter of time before he found out what. Thankfully, he had spoken to Mark and no longer lay in the dark about her.

  In less than two years, Ebony will be leaving you.

  The thought flashed in his mind and his gut twisted in response. Why did the thought cause his heart to ache with regret? Why did he want to work out so hard that he ended up mindless and without feelings? Why did he want to tear up that damned prenuptial contract and keep Ebony permanently with him, everything else be damned?

  All this for a woman who’d be no good for him. A woman he couldn’t trust. Who hadn’t told him the most important thing about their marriage. She was up to no good and yet, he wanted her. More than he’d ever wanted anything else.

  What was wrong with him?

  He let out a loud groan and increased his pace in the pool, swimming a few more laps until the wrenching ache in his heart got overtaken by the excruciating ache in his leg and a throbbing headache. He swam to the edge and pulled himself out of the water. As he wrapped the towel around his waist, he toppled over and reached out to the table to break his fall.

  She’ll find me.... That last thought crossed his mind as blackness surrounded him.

  What the hell just happened?

  Ebony paced their bedroom floor, still in the torn clothes she’d come upstairs in, getting more and more wound up. How had she gone from raising hell at seeing Helen Douglas in her husband’s arms to sprawling near naked on his desk all in the space of a few minutes? Gone from wanting to spit fire to turning into a pool of needful lava? From wanting to slap his face to wanting him inside her?

  She’d had to quickly pull her tattered clothes back on after he’d left her still recovering from the encounter in his office. She’d run back upstairs in embarrassment, hoping none of the domestic staff had noticed her state of undress.

  Where was her dignity?

  Felix had shredded it along with her clothes, with his behaviour, and she’d allowed it, too.

  First, he’d invited that woman into their home. Let her touch him. After Ebony had already told him about her behaviour at the Governor’s ball. He knew Ebony didn’t like Helen. Even if they had to have a meeting in the house, why did he let her touch him? That’s the bit she couldn’t get over. Any other woman and she probably wouldn’t have been so wound up. But Helen Douglas? She’d known Helen wanted to sink her claws into Felix from the first day she’d met her. The woman had been so blatant about it, too. Well, if Helen thought she’d stand aside for her, she had another think coming. Hell would freeze first.

  She stopped suddenly as another thought occurred to her.

  Felix knows about the marriage arrangement.

  How did he find out? Did his memory return? Did someone tell him? If so, who? She knew he hadn’t told anyone else about his amnesia except her and the doctors. So she wondered who he’d been talking to. She guessed that it didn’t matter. What mattered was that Felix thought that her whole behaviour since he woke from the coma had been an act. That she’d faked it all for money. If only she could pretend. If only what she felt for him wasn’t real. She loved the obstinate man with all her heart and had tried to show him that every day. How dare he think she was just interested in money?

  Nausea swept over her and she ran to the bathroom, making it there just in time. After throwing up, she stripped off the rest of her clothes and had a quick shower, letting the warm jets massage her back and soothe her. When she stepped out, she felt slightly better.

  As she got dressed, she decided on what to do. She would find Felix and sort this whole thing out once and for all. She’d grown tired of walking on eggshells, tired of worrying about the next bombshell. She would tell him everything. He had to know the things that happened the past few days were because of him, only him; not his money or the marriage contract. She was going to tell him that she loved him. Surely, he could see that she loved him. That she wanted to be here with him beyond the originally agreed timescales. Forever. She could only hope that he would listen and accept her. Pray that he felt the same way somewhere in his heart.

  Downstairs, she gave Bisi special instructions about dinner then strolled over to Felix’s office but couldn’t find him there and wondered if he went out in the garden. He loved the outdoors, sitting out in the garden at any opportunity. When he wasn’t in his usual spot outside, she headed towards the pool
house at the bottom end of the expansive garden.

  As she rounded the corner of the pool house, she saw a body sprawled on the stone tiles by the pool.

  “Felix!”

  With her heart nearly leaping out of her mouth and her legs suddenly wobbly, she ran and crouched over him. He looked lifeless, a pool of blood around his head. Telling herself not to panic and with shaking hands, she checked for a pulse and found a weak one on his neck.

  “Somebody, help me!” she cried out as she cradled his head on her lap and hoped someone would come quickly. Tears rolled down her face silently.

  Before long, she heard running footsteps and Kola came round the corner in a hurry. He crouched down next to her.

  “What happened?” he asked, his normally calm voice carrying concern.

  “I don’t know. I just found him on the floor and I don’t know how long he’s been like this. He must have slipped or something.”

  “The cut on his head looks bad. We have to take him to the hospital,” Kola said as he lifted Felix from the floor. She nodded and stood up shakily. He turned to her. “Go and get changed. I’ll put something on his head to stop the bleeding and get his clothes on. Meet me in the car.”

  Ebony started to object before she looked down and realised her clothes were covered in Felix’s blood. She didn’t care about her appearance while her husband lay injured and needed treatment. She just wanted to get him to hospital as quickly as possible. However, Kola had a point. At the moment, she looked like the one injured. She needed to change her clothes.

  “Okay. I’ll meet you at the car and I’ll send the driver to help you.”

  After one look at Felix, who was now lying on the sun lounger still unresponsive, she ran back to the main house all while her heart pounded with fear that this time death had finally come to claim her husband. Bisi came out of the kitchen. Ebony instructed her to send the driver back to the pool house to help Kola. Then she ran upstairs, stripped off the bloodied clothes, and changed as quickly as she could before racing back downstairs.