Kane peered into her eyes, his face morphing into a mask of torment, and she waited for the blast. Here was where he would leave her. He believed Noel’s version. Why would he believe in her? She had meant nothing but lost years and hard time.
“Should I be angry with you?” he asked.
Angeline wanted to tell him no, that her heart had always had been and was still his. But Noel might have made him believe otherwise, and she ducked her head.
“Never. But...”
She was back in the place where Noel ran his hands over her body. Nothing that she had liked or even wanted, but it had happened. And Kane had a right to be furious with her for the supposed betrayal.
“But I should have known that you wouldn’t leave me,” she said. “I shouldn’t have been so weak.”
Kane cocked his head and touched her chin.
“You?” he asked. “Weak?”
She wasn’t. She had been tricked. It wasn’t her fault. Not Kane’s fault either. Angeline started to remember everything that she had known when he was with her, presented her, protected her. She wasn’t weak; she had been lied to. Both of them betrayed.
“No,” she said. “But it still happened.”
She couldn’t lie to him.
Angeline bowed her head and awaited his inevitable departure. She had confessed, and this would be the end. Five long years leading to the goodbye.
“But it’s not what you wanted, right?” he asked.
Hope bloomed in her chest, and Angeline found his eyes again. Soft. Kind of sweet. Unable to speak, she only shook her head as he released her hand.
Then he pulled her into his arms.
“Kane—”
“Shhh.”
His hands studied her face, seeming to memorize each curve, every pore, and Angeline tuned her eyes back to his.
“I saw it,” Kane said. “He can force a girl to do anything.”
Angeline was nearly back in the space of being complicit, and she started to turn away. She had barely made a move when Kane pressed her close and breathed into her eyes.
“I won’t force you,” he said.
As Kane’s lips beckoned, Angeline tried to ask him if this was real.
And then he stilled her with the force of his kiss.
Kane tasted different. Sad. She had done that. But as their tongues entwined, she basked in the familiar feel of his arms and drew him deeper into her embrace.
“I want that,” she said.
Sighing into her hair, Kane reached under her blouse. His hands found her breasts, tense, and she followed his lead, brought his hands closer to her body.
“I want you, Kane. Only you.”
He kissed her again as he pressed her into the grass. The blades mingled with her hair as he eased the blouse away from her sides. Not a rip. Never a rip. This was him, and as her bra fell away, she waited for him to lean forward and bathe her breasts.
It was a short wait.
“Angel…”
As he suckled her breasts, Angeline tensed as his tongue started and stopped around her nipples. He stayed like that until his tongue found her lips again.
The she sighed.
“Just let me come home,” Kane said.
This was what she had wanted to hear, what she had needed. A single chance to get him back. But her unintentional sin might still be more than he could stand. She—
“My sweet Angel.”
Angeline breathed hard. She had no hope of speaking when his arms surrounded her quivering body. She was lifted off the ground to the place when she was on top of him. Looking down, she brushed her hand across his face as he kissed her neck.
“I missed you, Kane,” she said. “I missed you so—”
Before she knew what was happening, Kane pressed her back into the grass.
“Not as much as I missed you,” he said.
As he brought his mouth to hers, Angeline’s doubts fell away, and she stretched closer.
To taste him again.
“Kane, I—”
She started to tell him all the ways in which she had been lonely, desperate to explain her betrayal away. But he stopped her speech with a new kiss, his head twirling just below her tight throat.
“Look into my eyes.”
She found his gaze and waited. In silence, Kane traced the outline of her face. As his finger fell to her mouth, Angeline parted her lips and ran her tongue around his flesh. Somehow his sigh lifted her from the ground. Grabbing his face, she desperately kissed his mouth, his cheeks, and he winced when her eager lips crashed into one of his many bruises.
“Oh!” she cried. “I’m sorry. I—”
“Stop,” Kane ordered. “I don’t want you like that.”
She sank back to the grass as he pulled off his shirt. His muscles rippled in the moonlight, and she saw his crew’s insignia curling down his left arm. But there was something new. His right shoulder bore some crazy cursive, and she gasped as she reached for the new ink.
“When did you—”
“In the joint,” he whispered. “It’s for you. You like?”
Now Angeline’s eyes brimmed with tears. He had served her time. A lesser man might have grown bitter, his heart filling with hate as the days slipped into months and then years. But Kane came out the other side with her name, with Angel branded on his skin.
Just as he was still on her heart.
As she slowly nodded, Angeline felt his hands running up her legs. He gripped her thighs, and she happily writhed around his touch. All the time apart seemed to fall away as he kneaded her tender flesh. She found his hand and held him closer to her body. Kane drifted back to her mouth, kissed her hard, and she sighed as his touch moved between her legs.
Suddenly, he stopped, even as his pulse raced all around her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I… I mean… Are you okay with this?” Kane asked. “After what Noel did to you? I should have…”
Kane hung his head, and for a second, Angeline was pushed back to the place where she was manipulated, violated, taken without love. She tensed at the memory of Noel plowing into her on the back of a lie, and a shudder coursed through her veins.
But then she fixed her gaze on Kane, his sweet face, his breath falling across her throat.
He was wonderful to ask, but now there was only one way to answer his question.
“Just come back to me,” she pleaded, her voice wanting and hoarse.
Kane hesitated for only a second more. Belief filled his eyes, and he kissed her again as he eased her panties down her trembling thighs. She kicked them aside as he lifted up her skirt. Angeline peeled it away as he slid out of his jeans, his shorts.
And then she saw all of him.
His cock was hard, throbbing as he lowered himself back to her body. Without hesitation, Angeline eased her legs apart. He was gentle as he grazed her moist mound, and she held his massive arms in her small hands. With one nod, he worked his way inside her, deeper.
“Oh, Kane…”
He felt better than she had ever remembered, better than ever. His smooth length slinked inside her, and she opened like a flower. He throbbed around her and brushed the curls from her eyes.
“You’re finally here,” she whispered as she dotted his chest with soft kisses. Working her way to his mouth, she stopped short of his lips and wrapped her arms around his broad back.
“You’re home,” she said.
Placing one hand under her chin, he titled her gaze to his and smiled.
“Finally,” Kane said. “I think we both are.”
Keeping her eyes on his, Kane started to pulse. His thrusts were strong and sure, and Angeline closed her eyes, wanting nothing more than to savor the sensation of his cock. Every time he pulled back, she felt as if she was back in the years without him, and she moaned for more. But when he slipped back inside, drove deeper than she could ever have imagined, and her heart swelled with joy. Her cunt burned around him, and she dug her nails into h
is skin.
“Just stay with me,” she said. “Please.”
The absence of his cock became another bad memory, and she twirled her legs around his taut thighs. When he lifted her from the grass she stroked his hair, the sweat pouring from his brow as he forced her body ever closer to his. But this wasn’t Noel; that wasn’t the last thing she wanted.
“I’m never leaving you again, Angel.”
He expanded inside her, and she screamed into the fading night as he fell to his back. Her hands failed her, but Kane’s cock kept her in place. Following his lead, she rode him like a stallion towards freedom. No more loneliness, no more doubt. Just his power pulsing between legs, and Angeline taking all of him in until—
“Oh, God!” she screamed.
He started to explode inside her, and she stretched towards the air as his lust filled her. It streamed towards her brain, and she grew dizzy, dancing close to the edge of sleep. But not wanting to lose even one more moment of him, she shook her head and fell forward. Clasping his neck, she crushed her lips to his and kissed him quickly. He sighed into her mouth, and she was suddenly wide awake as his arms surrounded her. Kane stopped short, suspending her in a place where she might want to linger forever, the moment of where he would always be ready to take her. Struggling to calm her breath, she started to accept this fate when he brought her back to the grass.
“No more waiting,” he said, peering intently into her eyes.
Then he released. Kane flooded her cunt and she pulled at the green blades as she sank deeper into the dirt. His desire swirled inside her, and Angeline moaned. His stream reached every part of her tingling frame, and as his warmth slipped under her skin, she felt him fall to her side, staying inside her as he held her close.
They waited until his need diminished, but Kane did not pull out. He stayed inside her as he kissed her hair.
“So we’re good?” he asked.
She laughed into his neck, her smile expanding as he stroked her hair.
“Perfect,” she whispered. “Just you and me.”
Leaning up on her elbows, she winked.
“And my dad,” she teased. “We’ll have to have him to dinner. Now and again.”
Kane smiled sadly as he finally left her. But he kept her in his arms, and she rested her head to her name on his shoulder.
“Guess your hospitality won’t extend to the brothers,” Kane said.
Angeline started up, he eyes wide.
“What… You can’t mean…?”
How could he even think of staying with them after what Noel had done?
“Kane, you—”
“I can’t leave club,” he said. “They’re my family, too.”
Angeline started to turn away from him when he pulled her close. His hands moved down her sides as his lips met her cheeks. She started to protest, to remind him of all the ways in which it was better if they stayed like this, just the two of them. But as his eyes grew wide, she remembered the story of the little boy rescued by Noel from eating the scraps of other men. Whatever other sin he might have committed, Noel had still saved him, and she had already taken so much from him.
“But,” Kane started. “You have my word. Noel will keep his distance. Just…”
He kissed her quickly as he caressed her cheeks.
“Just promise me that I’ll always have you, Angel. Please?”
Even as she loathed the idea that he would stay in Noel’s orbit, she believed that he would always keep her safe.
“I’m yours,” she said as she kissed him again and they rested under the brightening sky.
CHAPTER TWELVE
After they made love again, Kane drove her home, kissed her lips, and told her that he’d come by her office.
“A real date,” he said. “I’ll even bring you flowers.”
Angeline had to laugh, but she took his hand as he started to pull away.
“Okay,” she said. “I…”
Laughing again like this felt so good. She wasn’t mocking him. She never would. But it was funny to think of him trying to select a bouquet. He’d probably come out the other end of the florist’s shop with too many petals of every kind in an effort to prove that he was the best.
He didn’t need to try that hard.
“Here,” she said.
Scribbling the address on his arm, she kissed his skin and smiled into his eyes.
“I’ll be waiting,” she promised.
“You better be,” Kane said as he moved back to his bike and sped into the morning.
Everything would be alright.
Brent Wilkins stirred from his seat when he heard her enter.
“Everything okay, Angie?” he asked.
Forgetting his vow to stay on with his crew, believing that whatever else happened, Kane would always be hers, she patted her father’s cheek.
“Everything’s great, Dad,” she said. “I’ll fix breakfast.”
Once Brent had eaten, she left him in the care of his physical therapist and headed off to work with a skip in her step. Everything would work itself out. She just had to believe. The feel of his blood back in her veins would allow them to weather any storm.
“Angeline?”
Dr. Lillian Palmer, her hair cropped on the verge of shorn, seemed to take note of the buzz swirling around her. Angeline smiled at her boss and steadied her stance among the samples.
“Yes, Doctor,” she said. “Something you need?”
Lillian Palmer cocked her head from one side to the other as she focused her stare on Angeline’s beaming face. Of course she seemed confused. Lillian had never seen her this happy, so the sight must seem strange.
“Are you feeling alright?” Lillian asked, her voice full of concern.
Angeline laughed as she nodded.
“Oh, yes,” she said. “The best thing has happened. I’m so…”
The room suddenly started to spin, and Lillian’s image grew blurry under her eyes. Angeline tried to brush it off and finish her thought, but her eyes grew heavy and she felt her legs growing weaker.
“I’m so…”
She pictured Kane, almost felt his arms around her as Lillian tried to stop her fall.
Then everything went black.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Angeline awoke on an exam table. It was a room into which she had ushered many patients while she stood off to the side. Lifting her lids, she almost thought that she saw a former version of herself, waiting. Just as quickly, it evaporated into the air, and Angeline knew nothing but the plush leather pressing into her back as Lillian scanned a printout and handed it off to another nurse. She closed the door tightly and pulled a stool to Angeline’s side.
“You’re up,” Lillian said. “Glad to see it.”
Running a hand across her flushed face, Angeline smiled.
“Guess I’m just tired,” Angeline said. “Long night.”
But well worth it. She had him back. He would be here at five. After so many years without, she wanted to have, to hold him again. He believed her, and Noel had failed. Even the rape faded away when she realized that she had won.
“I thought it best to draw blood,” Lillian said.
Angeline turned her head and saw the gauze taped to her arm. A part of her wanted to assure Lillian that she was just fine. Yet she was curious as Lillian flipped through the pages in her hands.
“Can your tests measure happiness?” Angeline asked, her voice full of joy.
Lillian seemed taken aback, confused. She only knew the sad girl that had shuffled towards her office as she marked off days on a calendar. And when the marks stopped, Lillian surprised her with a hug and tried to assure her that everything would somehow still be okay.
“So you’ve found someone else?” Lillian asked.
Angeline sat up and laughed.
“No,” she said. “Kane is alive. We… we were together. Just last night.”
Running her hands through her hair, Angeline remembered the ways in which he had ki
ssed her after taking her again. She forgot doubt when he rested his lips to her eyes.
***
“I’ll keep you safe,” Kane promised. “Just trust me.”
***
And she did then. She did now. It was nothing to tell Lillian the truth. Angeline expected her smile, and her teeth chattered when Lillian returned her gaze to the printout.
SECRET BABY AT THE ALTAR Page 9
