by Louise Hall
Kian took her mouth again, drugging her with hot, demanding kisses. She wrapped her arms and legs tightly around his torso. Kian wasn’t Declan and she wasn’t Hadley.
He drove them higher and higher until Cate spiralled into the most dizzying climax. She was only vaguely aware of Kian rutting furiously between her splayed thighs, the depths of her inky-black hair muffling his primitive grunts as he ground out his own orgasm, filling her with his molten, liquid release, coating her inner thighs, bottom and stomach.
Afterwards, Kian rolled over on to his back, draping Cate across him. “I need you to know something, angel.” He stroked his hands over her soft, dewy skin. “I definitely don’t condone what Declan and Ruby did. I’m just as angry as you are. I know what it feels like to really hurt the person that you love and it’s fucking awful. I’m so lucky that you forgave me after what happened at the World Cup.”
“I know you don’t condone it,” Cate said, tracing her fingers over the blue-black stubble on his jawline. “I know you’re not that guy but when I found out what Declan and Ruby had done, it just… it took me right back to that awful Christmas Eve. I’m beginning to understand how conflicted Ben and Sinead must have been when they knew what you’d done and I didn’t. I’ve got to fly to L.A. tomorrow morning with Declan and I just don’t know if I can do it. If I go out there on Saturday night and plaster a fake smile on my face, am I saying that what they did was OK?”
“What else can you do?” Kian asked. “They’ve put you in an impossible situation.”
“I could quit the show?” Cate suggested. “It’s not like I’m going to win.”
“No,” Kian shook his head, “you have worked too hard to quit now. It’s the quarter-final.”
CHAPTER 34
“The second couple through to next week’s semi-final is…”
Cate stood under the spotlight, trying to ignore Declan’s treacherous hand on her hip.
Even though she was still conflicted about being on Stepping Out, the Paso Doble had been by far her favourite dance of the series. It felt like a gift that she’d been given such a dramatic and intense dance tonight; it was the perfect outlet for all of her pent-up frustrations about Declan and Ruby.
She was still wearing her gorgeous Paso Doble costume, which was a fitted black waistcoat and a full black lace skirt, woven through with red sparkly thread. The waistcoat finished just below her belly button and the skirt sat low on her hips so there was a tantalising glimpse of bare flesh in between. She’d been allowed to wear her inky-black hair wild and untamed with just a red sparkly band that dipped to a v on her forehead. Her black eyes were accentuated with thick black kohl. She couldn’t help but be inspired by the gypsy style.
Despite the fact that she hadn’t actually talked to Declan, apart from about their two dances, since Wednesday night, they’d finished on top of the judges’ leader board. They came first in the Swingathon and got a total of twenty five for their Paso Doble.
“It’s Cate and Declan.” It was a strange feeling when their names were called out. She plastered that fake smile on her face so nobody watching would suspect that she wasn’t quite sure if she was happy to get through to the semi-finals. She loved learning the different dances and there was simply no greater feeling than making her children proud. But if Declan came back with her to Seattle, that would put him in the same city again as Ruby.
“I need to talk to you,” Declan blocked her path as Cate and Annie walked to Wardrobe.
“I’ll go on ahead,” Annie said.
Declan gripped Cate’s elbow and dragged her into a supply closet.
“Let go of me right now,” Cate struggled against his tight grip.
“If we’re going to carry on in this competition, we need to fix this.”
“We don’t need to fix anything,” Cate spat angrily. “You need to fix things with your wife.”
“It’s none of your business, Cate.”
Cate wanted to slap him so badly. “You made it my business when you slept with my sister, you asshole.” She reached for the door handle but Declan blocked her again. Cate narrowed her eyes at the man she’d once thought was her friend. “You’re going to move out of my way right now or so help me, I’m going to scream as loud as humanly possible.”
Declan took a step backwards. “I’m sorry.”
Cate laughed sarcastically, “it’s not me that you should be apologising to. I really thought you were a decent guy but I was so badly wrong. I’m not going to let your sordid little affair force me to quit Stepping Out but from now on, we are dance partners and that’s it. I don’t want you anywhere near my home or my family.”
“Is everything OK?” Annie looked concerned when Cate joined her in Wardrobe.
“It’s just family stuff,” Cate shrugged as Hope helped her out of her Paso costume.
“Never mind that,” Annie whooped, “can you believe that we are both in the semi-finals?”
“I can’t,” Cate grinned. She’d been so busy thinking about Declan and Ruby’s affair that it hadn’t really sunk in just what she’d achieved tonight; she’d made it to the semi-freaking-finals of Stepping Out.
She clasped hands with Annie and jumped up and down excitedly. It must have been a strange sight for poor Hope because they’d both been halfway through getting changed and so Annie was wearing her A-line denim skirt, flat sandals and industrial-strength bra while Cate was wearing her black Paso waistcoat and black knickers. They both still had their dramatic hairdos and thick make-up leftover from the show.
“I think this definitely calls for one of those selfie things,” Annie said, whipping out her phone.
Hope giggled, “I’ll take it for you.”
“Nonsense,” Annie said, “you’re going to be in it with us, love.”
The three of them pulled a series of goofy faces for the camera. “I’m going to get my granddaughter Suzie to help me post it on my Instagram.”
“You’ve got an Instagram account?” Hope looked genuinely shocked.
“Absolutely,” Annie laughed. She dropped her voice to a whisper, “how else am I supposed to keep up with all those lovely topless shots of Vladimir?”
Kian and Guillermo were both waiting for Cate outside the studios. “Guillermo wants to show you something,” Kian chuckled. Guillermo looked around to make sure that nobody was watching and then quickly undid his smart black jacket and white shirt to reveal a t-shirt with “Team Date” written on it big, black letters. “What is that?”
“That’s what the fans call you,” Guillermo explained. “Declan and Cate, Team Date.”
“Wow,” Cate covered her mouth, “I can’t believe anybody cares enough to give us a nickname.”
“You’re really very popular, Mrs Warner,” Guillermo said, fastening his shirt and jacket again.
“I need you to pinch me,” Cate said to Kian as they climbed into the back of the town car.
Kian cupped her breast over her thin jumper and pinched the swollen bud of her nipple. “Ow,” Cate jumped, feeling the electric shock ricochet down to her furiously clenching sex. “I didn’t say pinch my boob. You’re insatiable.”
Kian laughed, “you didn’t actually specify where you wanted me to pinch you, angel. I just chose my favourite. Anyway, you deserved it. Watching you dance every week is like the most torturous fucking foreplay. You get me so hard I can barely stand to applaud you at the end.”
“Aw,” Cate teased, palming the front of his jeans, “you say the sweetest things to me.”
They were interrupted by her phone ringing. Cate looked down at the screen; it was their home phone in Seattle. “Is everything OK?” Cate asked quickly.
“It’s me,” Ruby said quietly. Cate quickly double-checked the screen but it was definitely their home number.
“What are you doing in my home?” Cate demanded angrily. “I thought I told you to stay the hell away from my family.”
“I’m sorry,” Ruby sobbed, “but it was the only way I co
uld get you to answer my calls.”
Cate shook her head, “I want to talk to Nate right now.” Or more accurately, I want to fire Nate for letting that trampy home-wrecker into my home.
“He’s upstairs,” Ruby said. “Mats woke up; he was thirsty.”
Cate gritted her teeth, “you can tell your friend, Nate that I want to talk to him first thing tomorrow morning. You had better be freaking gone from my house when I get home, Ruby or I swear to God I will physically remove you myself.” She switched off her phone and rested her head back on the soft leather seat. Her tired, aching body was riddled with fresh tension. “We need to find a new nanny. Of course, Nate would sympathise with Ruby – he’s just as bad as she is, making a play for Luke’s dad.”
“Come here,” Kian wrapped his arm around his wife’s shoulders, tucking her into his side.
Cate burrowed into the familiar warmth of his chest, “will you remind me to notify the front gate tomorrow that Ruby isn’t allowed access to the house anymore?”
“You can’t avoid her forever, she’s your sister.”
“I can definitely try,” Cate narrowed her eyes at Kian, “and she’s my half-sister.”
A couple of minutes later, Cate’s phone rang again, it was Nate. “Is everything OK? Ruby said you urgently needed to talk to me.”
Cate pressed her knuckles against her forehead; there was a thick band of tension tightly squeezing her skull. “I haven’t got the energy for this tonight, Nate. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
She switched her phone to vibrate and rested her head on Kian’s chest again. He gently stroked his fingers through her silky hair. “I remember reading about this study in Psychology which said that if at first you really like someone and then you dislike them, that you dislike them even more intensely than if you’d disliked them from the very start. I hate Declan and Ruby so much that it actually scares me.”
“I was prepared to lie and say that it was you and me on that sex tape, regardless of the consequences for our family, just to protect her career and this is how she repays me. Maybe she’s more like our biological father than I first thought?”
“She didn’t do this to you,” Kian said. “You feel like it’s personal because it reminds you of what I did with Jenna but Ruby didn’t cheat on you, she and Declan cheated on Nico and Hadley.”
“She might not have betrayed me but what she did… how does that make her any different from Jenna? They both slept with another woman’s husband.”
CHAPTER 35
“Do you want to say hello to your Grandpa, sweetie?” Cate giggled, imagining Dexter Rathburn’s horrified expression on the other end of the line. She wouldn’t have inflicted him on either Lola or Mateo but fortunately Sierra was much too young to remember that she’d ever had any contact with her only living biological grandfather.
She’d been just about to leave for Sierra’s first birthday party at the Taco Shack when the house phone had rung.
“I hate to interrupt since I’m sure you were expressing your deepest, most heartfelt apologies that you couldn’t be here tonight to attend your granddaughter’s first birthday party,” her voice was dripping with sarcasm, “but what do you want, Dexter?”
“I want you to convince Ruby to come home. I understand that she’s finally broken up with that godforsaken peddler of filth…”
“He owns an erotic bakery,” Cate interjected, feeling the need to defend poor Nico. It was bad enough that he’d been cheated on; he didn’t need his reputation being besmirched as well. “He’s not exactly a sleazy porn baron.”
“Regardless,” Dexter grunted. “Ruby isn’t like you lot, she’s a good girl.”
“Ha,” Cate spluttered, “Ruby’s a good girl, yeah right!” A good girl who just happens to enjoy breaking up other people’s marriages.
“She was brought up properly,” Dexter continued, oblivious. “Your mother might be a moderately successful businesswoman but she was obviously a very neglectful parent, letting you and your brother and sisters run wild. My Ruby would never have gotten pregnant at just eighteen.”
Cate rolled her eyes so much she was in danger of dislocating them. She didn’t remind Dexter that she might have got pregnant at eighteen but she was still married to her children’s father. “Even if we had been left to run wild as the poor, latchkey children of a single parent, which we definitely weren’t, I wonder whose fault it might have been?”
“That’s not the point, Catherine.”
Cate laughed, “wow, you don’t even know my name, do you?”
“Cate is often short for Catherine. It’s not an unrealistic assumption.”
“It is if you’re talking about your biological child and you don’t even know what’s printed on her birth certificate.”
“Ruby doesn’t belong over there in Seattle. She should be here in Calder Harbour with her real family, her mother and I.”
“Is it a game with you?” Cate asked, “trying to get as many insults as you can into each sentence? I don’t know why you’re talking as if you, Pamela and Ruby are still one big happy family. You and Pamela have been divorced for several months now and as far as I know, she’s one hundred percent supportive of Ruby taking a break and coming here to Seattle.”
“I haven’t got time for this nonsense. Are you going to convince Ruby to come home or not?”
“That would be a negative, Dexter. Goodbye.” She didn’t need to tell him that she wasn’t currently speaking to Ruby so she couldn’t convince her of anything.
There was a sign on the front door of the Taco Shack announcing that it was closed that night for a private event. “That’s for you, baby girl,” Cate shifted Sierra further up on her hip.
It was Sierra’s first birthday and despite Declan and Ruby’s affair, Cate was determined that they were all going to have a really great night. She’d spent the last couple of days in the gym with Declan rehearsing their two dances for the semi-final: American Smooth and Salsa. He’d taught her the choreography and corrected her technique but apart from that, they’d spent their sessions in total silence.
Kian, Lola and Mateo had gone on ahead to make sure that everything was set up for the party so it was just Cate and Sierra. There was an icy cold wind blowing across the Sound so Cate snuggled her youngest daughter even further into her long, black winter coat. “At least there isn’t a superstorm tonight like there was a year ago.”
Sierra looked adorable in the new purple party dress her Granny Reen had sent for her birthday. Cate, who didn’t usually like too much fuss, had even acquiesced and fitted the matching purple bow to her daughter’s silky black hair. She was a little sad that neither her mum nor Kian’s mum, Jean, could be here for their grandchild’s first birthday party but they’d Skyped earlier and they were both flying to Seattle for the Christmas holidays.
“Happy birthday,” everyone cried as Cate pushed open the front door and stepped into the bright lights of the Taco Shack. Sierra looked up at her mum, a little frown appearing, as she checked whether all the noise and fuss was OK.
“Happy birthday,” Cate grinned, kissing the top of her head. “I love you to the moon and back.”
Sierra giggled and gave Cate’s braid a good, hard tug.
“She’s such a cutie-pie,” Abby cooed, already reaching out her arms, “please can I have a hold?”
Cate handed Sierra to Abby and went to hang up her wool coat. It was lovely and warm inside the Taco Shack. “Do you like it?” Heidi asked, handing Cate a virgin Margarita.
“It’s amazing,” Cate took a sip, tasting the salt crystals on the rim of the glass. She looked around at her family and friends, who all seemed to be enjoying themselves. It reminded her of why she wanted to stay here in Seattle once Kian retired from playing professional football. “Thank you so much.”
“Hey,” Heidi nudged, “no crying, OK?”
Cate quickly wiped under her eyes, “they’re happy tears, I promise.”
Sierra was so popular that hal
fway through the party, as Heidi was about to bring out the cake, Cate said to Kian, “I’ve lost the birthday girl.”
“She’s over there,” Kian laughed. Lola was struggling to balance Sierra on her hip. She and Mats were marvelling at their sister’s impressive haul of birthday gifts, which were stacked high on the table at the back.
Cate took Sierra from Lola and said the magic words, “it’s time for cake.”
“I love cake,” Mateo rubbed his little tummy. “Is it chocolate? That’s my favourite.” He frowned as if something had suddenly occurred to him, “I don’t like fruit cake though.”
“Of course it’s chocolate,” Lola rolled her eyes, “nobody puts fruit in a birthday cake, Mats.”
Cate sat in one of the booths with Sierra on her lap while Heidi brought out the cake that Liv had made. The decoration was gorgeous, if slightly unconventional. It was meant to be Cate and Kian’s neighbourhood and the houses were so realistic, Liv had captured everything, even the tiniest details. Except that it looked like a storm had rampaged through the neighbourhood – the houses were missing roof tiles and the dark green shutters on Eric and Allison’s house were wonky; there were fallen trees and damaged electricity lines. Sat serenely in the middle of all the chaos and debris was a tiny little girl – Sierra.
Cate found Nate and Eric in amongst the guests. They’d both been with her, exactly a year ago today, when she’d gone into labour at home, in the midst of the ferocious superstorm that would share her little girl’s name.
On the journey back from L.A. to Seattle, she’d been absolutely determined to fire Nate for letting Ruby into their home when she and Kian weren’t there but the next morning, after she’d tossed and turned all night, she’d realised that she couldn’t do that – the children adored him.
Jax got out his guitar and they sang “Happy Birthday” to Sierra. She giggled and clapped her hands, enjoying being the centre of everybody’s attention.
Cate felt her heart drop to her stomach as she detected a voice that was slightly huskier than the others. Her eyes darted around and she saw Ruby trying to hide at the back of the group.
