by Louise Hall
Copyright © 2017 Louise Hall. All rights reserved
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorised, associated with or sponsored by the trademark owners.
BOOKS BY LOUISE HALL
My First Half
Two Halves
The Retake
Paradise Syndrome
Learning to Tango (2018)
The Cabin (2018)
Monsters & Angels (2018)
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Bonus Story – Lola’s 1st Christmas
PROLOGUE
5 months earlier…
“Can I get you another drink, sir?” The silver-haired barman asked Kian as he nursed the last dregs of his German beer. The almost empty bottle was a sorry sight against the otherwise pristine countertop. Lost in thought, Kian had scratched off the label and the remnants now sat in a soggy mess intermingled with the condensation from his once ice-cold beer.
Kian shook his head. There was nothing quite as pathetic as sitting in a hotel bar getting drunk on your own. Earlier that day he’d said goodbye to his wife and children back home in Manchester and tomorrow he would be flying to Seattle. He’d signed a contract to play for Seattle F.C. in the MLS.
As he reached for his wallet in the front pocket of his jeans, he felt another hand gently brush up against the back of his.
“You didn’t think I’d let you leave without saying a proper goodbye, did you?” A husky voice whispered in his ear. Kian closed his eyes, breathing in that familiar scent of blackberries.
When he looked up again, his wife was sat on the bar stool next to his. She’d lined her black eyes with kohl, making them look even more entrancing. She looked like a fallen angel; the living, breathing embodiment of all of his wildest fantasies.
Her long, inky-black hair, such a stark contrast against her pale skin, tumbled down her back. The silky strands were just begging for him to run his fingers through them. He closed his eyes for a moment. He could almost feel them wrapped tightly around his wrist, tugging her head back as he took her roughly from behind.
When he opened his eyes, Cate was watching him from underneath the veil of her impossibly long, black eyelashes. She blushed as if she knew exactly what he’d just been thinking about.
Her dark purple dress dipped low enough at the front that he could see the shadowy valley between her perfect, fucking breasts.
Cate trembled almost imperceptibly under his intense gaze and he watched on, his mouth bone-dry, as her nipples visibly stiffened for him underneath the thin silk.
Kian couldn’t resist; he reached up his hand and gently cupped the swell of her left breast.
“Mm,” she whimpered, her eyelids fluttering closed.
She might have thought that her breasts were too small but he liked the fact that they fitted easily into the palms of his hands. She wasn’t wearing a bra and just the thought of her bare breasts – soft, creamy flesh and dusky-pink tips - made his cock throb painfully against the harsh confines of his jeans.
He leaned forward, planting hot, open-mouthed kisses against the juncture between her neck and shoulder, hiding what he was doing from the other patrons as he brushed the pad of his thumb slowly back and forth over her swollen bud.
Cate grabbed a fistful of his black shirt, needing to anchor herself.
“My room or yours?” Kian asked, feeling her pulse kick hard against his lips.
She looked up at him and smirked, “I checked out half an hour ago.”
As they walked along the quiet, gravel pathway at the back of the hotel, Kian once again marvelled at his wife’s duplicity. She’d told him when she’d made the travel arrangements that the hotels he usually stayed at on the approach to Heathrow were all fully-booked hence why he was staying at this former country house hotel several miles away.
He’d been so fucking annoyed at check-in when he’d found out that his room for the night wasn’t in the main building but in one of the annexes on the outer edges of the estate. The very last thing he’d wanted when he’d just left his wife and children at home, knowing that he wouldn’t see them again for six months, was solitude.
“I can’t believe you planned all this?” Kian tightened his arm around her waist.
Cate giggled, “I still can’t believe that I got away with it.”
When they got to the small annexe, the rooms on either side of his were shrouded in darkness. Kian raised an eyebrow, “I’m going to assume that’s not a coincidence.”
“I might…” Cate teased, sliding her hand into the front pocket of his jeans so that she could retrieve the room key, “have booked all three rooms in this annexe.”
“I fucking love you,” Kian grunted, scooping her up and carrying her into the room. He kicked the heavy, wooden door shut behind them.
“I love you too.”
Kian put her down on the carpet. “Angel,” he took a deep, shuddering breath. “I don’t know if I can be gentle the first time.”
Cate pushed her fingers through his black hair, tilting his head down until his forehead was pressed against hers. “I don’t want you to be gentle with me.” A single tear trickled down her flushed cheek. “I want everything you can give me. Tonight has got to last us for the next few months.”
With his eyes never leaving hers, Kian placed his hands on either side of the base of her neck, his thumbs lightly stroking her delicate throat. He dragged them achingly slowly down her sternum. Even the gentlest of touches felt as though it was scorching her sensitive skin. His fingers dipped underneath the v of her dress, moving outwards under the thin silk until he was touching her bare breasts.
“Kian,” Cate whimpered, arching her back towards him. Her nipples were aching to be touched. When she looked down, she could see his large hands moving underneath the front of her dress. It was too erotic; the back of her head hit the wall with a bump.
Kian cupped her breasts in his hands and stilled, listening to her harsh, choppy breaths.
He brushed the pads of his calloused thumbs over her knotted nipples and she cried out. “Please,” Cate restlessly shifted her hips, pinned between his solid body and the door.
“What do you want, angel?” The warmth of his breath fanned out across her goose-bump riddled skin.
“You,” Cate gasped, as he rubbed his erection against the softness of her lower belly.
Kian roughly pushed down the front of her dress, exposing her breasts.
He wasn’t usually cruel but despite her obvious frustration, he still to
ok a moment to just enjoy the exquisite beauty of her bared breasts. He couldn’t deny that her body had changed since they’d first got together, when she was just a teenager. His eyes dropped to the faded scar which marked her abdomen from giving birth to their daughter, Lola. Cate would never believe him but it was because of those changes – brought about by nearly eight years of marriage and two beautiful children – that he found her the sexiest now that she’d ever been.
“Like this?” Kian teased. He bent his head and pressed the softest of kisses underneath the swell of each breast. His stubble scratched deliciously against her bare skin.
“No,” Cate rapidly shook her head. When he looked up; her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, her soft, cushiony lips were parted a little to let out the rapid pants and her cheeks were flushed the most delicate shade of pink.
Kian chuckled. “What about this?” He dragged the velvet of his tongue slowly up and over her aching, swollen bud.
“Yes,” Cate threw her head back against the wall again. Kian chuckled, the vibrations rippling torturously across her highly-sensitised skin. She might have been able to trick him into thinking that he wasn’t going to see her again for another six months, with the tearful goodbyes at the house that morning but she’d never ever been able to hide just how desperately she wanted him. The sexual chemistry between them had always been off the fucking charts.
He sucked the mound of her soft breast into the hot, wet cavern of his mouth, dragging his teeth against her delicate skin. She rose up on tiptoes; screaming his name as his wicked, velvety tongue tormented her aching nipple over and over again.
“It’s a good job you booked those other rooms, angel,” Kian smirked. “I do love making you scream like that.”
“Don’t tease me,” Cate begged. “Please.”
Kian reached for her wrists and tugged her across to the mahogany writing desk, which was placed in front of the large windows, overlooking the dense woodland at the back of the annexe. He kicked the chair out of the way and instructed Cate to lean forward with her elbows on the desk. He could see her faint reflection in the glass in front of them; with her arms close to her sides, her breasts, which were still damp from his tongue and marked by his lips and teeth, were thrust forward.
Kian wrapped her inky-black hair around his wrist, tugging her head back. With his other hand, he pushed her dress up around her waist, exposing the wisp of black lace protecting her modesty. Her legs were gently trembling and as he nudged them apart, he could see the glittering trail of arousal on her inner thigh.
Kian tore off her panties and tossed the scraps on the carpet.
“Fuck!” he grunted, struggling one-handed to undo his jeans over the thick bulge of his erection. He shoved his jeans down to mid-thigh.
Cate felt the searing heat of his male flesh brush against her inner thigh. “Please.”
Gritting his teeth, Kian wrapped his hand around the base of his painfully-engorged cock and rubbed it between his wife’s legs, anointing it in her abundant juices.
Driven almost to the brink of insanity, Cate pushed back against him, rubbing her bottom impatiently against his groin.
“Yes,” she whimpered as she felt the blunt head of his cock penetrate her opening.
Kian let go of her hair and she slumped forward. He wrapped his hands around her slender hips and thrust hard, her hips slamming into the edge of the desk as his thick cock forced apart her intimate walls.
“Angel,” Kian grunted, pulling out almost to the tip. When he looked down, his cock was dripping with her juices.
“Fuck,” he roared, slamming back into her again, even harder this time. She could hardly breathe; his cock was so deep she could feel it throbbing against her stomach.
Kian was perilously close to climax; his balls felt like lead fucking weights. He leaned over, pressing his front against her back. She felt so small and fragile beneath him. He gripped her tender breast and pushed his other hand between her splayed legs. Her clit was so fucking swollen. Kian buried his face in the curve between her neck and shoulder. As he rocked into her ever more frantically, he roughly squeezed her breast and rubbed her tender, aching clit. Cate stiffened in his arms and then…
“Kian,” she screamed, shuddering uncontrollably. The warmth of her release flooded his palm and trickled between his fingers. She couldn’t stop clenching around his cock, gripping him to the point of pain, forcing his orgasm and then demanding every last drop of his release until he sagged against her, hollow and spent.
When he could breathe again, he lifted himself up off her back. He smoothed his hands over her ass cheeks, parting them wide. “Fuck,” he grunted. Cate felt him begin to stiffen again. He’d always been fucking turned on by the sight of their bodies fused together. Cate’s skin was so much paler than his. He stroked his fingers over her parted lips, marvelling at the sight of her sex, full of his cock and release.
“It’s a good job you’re on the pill, angel,” Kian remarked as he reluctantly pulled out, “otherwise I would definitely have just got you pregnant again.”
Cate swatted his chest, “yeah because that would be such a good idea considering you’re leaving tomorrow for six months.”
After he’d tenderly cleaned between her legs, Kian lifted her up and carried her across to the four-poster bed.
“Promise me something,” Cate asked, biting her bottom lip.
“Anything,” Kian kissed the top of her head.
“When you have to leave tomorrow, don’t wake me up.” When she looked up at him, her big, black eyes were filled with sadness. “I can’t say goodbye to you again. It will break me.”
Kian placed her down gently in the centre of the mattress. “I promise,” he murmured, brushing his lips against hers. “I love you, angel.”
He kept his word. When Cate woke up the next morning, he’d already left for the airport. All she had to remember the previous night were the already-fading bruises on her hips and breasts, the dull ache between her legs and her swollen lips. They’d woken up several times during the night, greedily reaching for each other and making love again and again until they were both aching and raw.
She wanted to lick her lips, to see if she could still taste him there but she didn’t know if she could face the crushing disappointment if she couldn’t. How could she get through the next six months without him?
With tears trickling down her cheeks, she climbed out of bed. As she walked across to the bathroom, she saw her purple dress still crumpled up in a heap by the desk.
When she walked into the bathroom, the black t-shirt Kian had been wearing the previous day was folded up neatly on the closed toilet seat. There was a note for her on the top, written on the hotel’s stationery. “Since I’ve taken something of yours, it’s only fair that you have something of mine. I love you, angel.” Cate hugged the t-shirt to her bare chest. Her knees almost buckled when she realised that it still smelled like him.
With her curiosity piqued, she looked around, wondering what he’d taken of hers. Her husband could be such a cave man; she already had a sneaky suspicion… She ran back into the bedroom, still clutching Kian’s t-shirt. When she looked down at the carpet at the side of the desk, where Kian had tossed the shreds of her lace panties after he’d torn them from her body the previous night, it was empty.
“Is that all, madam?” The driver asked as he took Cate’s small overnight bag. She’d just checked out of the hotel and the taxi was going to take her to Euston so that she could catch the train back home to Manchester.
“Yes, thank you,” Cate was about to slip into the back seat of the taxi when she heard the rumble of an aeroplane which had just taken off from Heathrow. It was a Boeing 747 with the British Airways livery. She didn’t know if it was Kian’s plane but she couldn’t stop watching until it disappeared high above the clouds. “I love you too.”
CHAPTER 1
“Good afternoon ladies and gentleman, in twenty minutes we’ll be starting our descent into Se
attle. If you need to make use of the washrooms, please do so now as the fasten seatbelt signs will shortly be illuminated.”
The lights flickered on above their heads and Lola looked up bleary-eyed. “Are we nearly there?”
“Almost,” Cate said softly, leaning across the divide between the seats to place a kiss on her daughter’s forehead. “Do you want to come with me to get changed?”
“I guess,” Lola shrugged. She threw back the blanket and swung her pyjama-clad legs down from the flat-bed. Her inky-black hair was all tangled up at the back of her head.
Cate handed her infant son Mateo, who was still asleep to her mother-in-law, Jean. He didn’t even stir as his grandmother settled him on her knee.
She retrieved her navy-blue carry-on bag from the overhead locker and followed her daughter down the short aisle to the washroom. While Lola changed out of her pyjamas and into her regular clothes, Cate waited outside. She looked around at the almost empty Club World cabin. Her husband might be extremely wealthy but she didn’t think that she would ever get used to being able to travel in such comfort and luxury.
After brushing out the tangles from her daughter’s hair and fixing it in a ponytail, it was Cate’s turn to use the washroom. As she washed her hands, she looked at herself in the mirror. She was stupidly nervous. In a couple of hours, she was going to see her husband in the flesh for the first time in five months. She pulled a band out of her pocket and quickly plaited her long, inky-black hair to the side. He’d always liked it like that.
There were dark shadows under her eyes and she still looked too pale. It had been tough being separated from Kian for so long, much tougher than she’d admitted to him during their nightly Skype chats. She pinched her cheeks trying to get some colour back into them.
Her t-shirt had ridden up during the flight, exposing a ribbon of skin around her midriff. Cursing softly, Cate quickly pulled it down and removed a lightweight khaki jacket from her carry-on bag.
“Mama!” Mateo was awake when she got back to her seat. He looked so much like his dad that it had been both a blessing and a punishment for the last five months. He reached out his chubby little arms and she took him back from Jean. “Hey buddy.”
