It was far worse than she ever could have imagined.
Lillian taking her lead without a loved one to care for and her mind focused on nothing but profit was one thing. Sure, it stung, and Angeline wondered how she could have ever admired the doctor. But most people weren’t what they seemed. Noel White certainly wasn’t. So, why should Lillian be any different?
On those long nights when she couldn’t stop the tears, when Theo took her hand, she had imagined him beaten for any transgression, real or something sick and unwarranted in Noel’s depraved mind. But what he had made her do, the vile feel of his wicked cock between her legs. That was something that Kane would never have to endure, and she was able to take some comfort in that.
Until this moment.
“He…he raped you?” she asked, her voice cracking around each word.
Kane smiled, and she could see that he was on the verge of spinning a story to put her mind at ease. But she wasn’t having it.
“Why?” she moaned. “How…how could he?”
“It’s gonna be alright, Angel,” Kane said. “It is—”
“How could he hurt you like that?” she demanded. “Isn’t he…I mean…I’m one thing but—”
“Don’t you ever talk like that!”
She flashed back to the way it felt when he had taken her with a lie. However, that was a strategy. A play meant to tear them apart. But this?
“I…I got in the way of some business,” Kane said. “With one of the girls.”
Angeline could almost see him only wanting to save someone from another version of her night with Noel, and she nearly smiled when she thought of him swooping in to save the day.
“Of course you did,” she said, as she tentatively touched his chest. Kane grabbed her hand and kissed her fingers. Even as she longed for more of his lips, she held back and forced him to finish the story. When she learned how Noel had tried to drown the poor junkie in his piss, new hatred for the man sprouted around her heart.
“He was way out of line, but he’s still in charge,” Kane said. “So he…I don’t know.”
Hanging his head, Kane seemed to want to drop the subject, but Angeline could think of nothing but her lover violated. Noel’s rage was on account of her chancing upon him in a clinic, healing his hand, and needing his help. Kane might be in command if she hadn’t darkened his life, and he certainly wouldn’t have been raped at his so-called mentor’s hands.
“He did it because of me,” Angeline said.
Kane lifted his eyes and started to grab her face, but Angeline pushed away from the bed and moved to the window. Pressing her palm against the glass, she realized that all that had happened had brought her Theo, and she wouldn’t trade her boy for anything. But the price that Kane had to pay simply because he looked at her, liked her, loved her, was too much for any man to bear. Even Kane.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” Angeline said.
Racing to her side, Kane tried to bring her back to his eyes, but Angeline held her ground.
“You were doing fine before me,” she said. “You need to forget. I’m trouble, Kane. I’m—”
“Stop talking!” Kane pulled her away from the window, and she fell back in his chest as he stroked her hair and kissed her cheeks. “I came here to hold you,” he purred. “Just hold you.”
Wanting nothing more than to live in his embrace, Angeline pressed her body to his and tried to believe that everything could work itself out. She was nearly there when Kane’s fingers reached under her skirt and grazed her quaking thighs.
He easily slid close to the desiring warmth that coursed through her veins before settling about her aching pussy. Angeline started to drive into his hold when the thought of Noel bending him over and ripping him apart made her heart skip a beat. Fighting her need to have him in the bed that she had struggled to keep warm, Angeline pushed him back and shook her head.
“I know, Kane,” she murmured.
Clutching her face again, her own juices warm and slick on his hands, he smiled as he said, “Know what, Angel?”
She took his hand and said, “I know what it is to have him inside you when you just want to get away.”
Kane tried to shrug her words off, but she wouldn’t let him break way until he confessed. “It hurts,” he said plainly.
Angeline remembered the pain all too well, and she never wanted that for him. But his back and his truth told a different story, and so she had to hold him and try to comfort him—even though she knew that it would probably be the last time.
“Listen to me,” she whispered. “All the bad things are because of me, and—”
“No, Angel.”
“—if you really want to run away,” Angeline continued, “and if you want freedom, then you have to… you have to steer clear of me.” She had kept the bed waiting, longed for him beside her for more nights than she could count. Now, she had him, but she had to let him go. “Kane…”
He scooped her up into his arms and silenced her with a fast kiss. Lingering around his lips, she eased her arms around his back, minding his wounds. She nearly forgot them until their mouths parted, and she fixed her eyes on his. “I’m poison,” she said. “I’ve infected you enough.”
He gripped her arm tighter. “What about Theo?” he asked. “You say he’s like me. Doesn’t he need his father?”
Like Kane, he needed to be safe, and while she had no doubt that Kane would lay his life down if any threat came her boy’s way, Noel was too hard a force to fight. As she started to speak her fears, Kane pressed her to his chest and muttered into her hair, “I’ve fixed it. I can be smart, too.”
Looking up at him, she started to ask what he had done and why he was so sure of his plan, but Kane just brought a single finger to her lips and smiled with his eyes. “I came here for you,” Kane said. “And you…you need to trust me, Angel.”
She wanted to. More than anything, she wanted to believe in him and know that the worst was over. Angeline had seen him with Theo again, and she suddenly understood how her son was able to nod off in his protective embrace. Angeline could do that too if given the chance. However, if he was here to look after her and care for her, she needed to start by returning the favor.
“Lie down,” Angeline said.
Kane followed her order and fell to the bed. She stroked his face and kissed his lips before she started to pull away.
“Angel—”
“I’ll be right back,” she said. “I promise.”
Kane curled his hands behind his head and smiled as he waited. She touched his taut chest one more time before flying out of the room. Mindful of her steps, as she passed the sleeping bodies behind closed doors, she poured ice cubes into a bowl, snatched a cloth, and hurried back to his side. All tension left his mouth at the sight of her, and as she sat on her side of the bed, she ran her fingers through his hair and kissed his head.
“Turn over,” Angeline said.
Doing as he was told, Kane shifted to his chest, and Angeline looked away for a moment when Kane gave her the chance to fully absorb the damage to his flesh. It should never have happened, but there was no way of turning back the clock. Kane wanted to live in the present, and Angeline wanted nothing more than to heal him again. It was her first gesture of love—and repeating it was all that she could think of as he lay at her side.
“I want to make you feel better,” she said.
Capturing a few cubes in the cloth, Angeline stared to drag the ice down his battered back. Kane tensed and the cubes melted as soon as they touched his hot flesh; but, Angeline kept going, fighting to heal him and make him whole again. Kane gripped his pillow and moaned when the melting moved to his waist, and his body curled around the bed.
Angeline could sense that the cold water had hit his cock. When he reached behind his head and started to play with her hair, she knew that his lust and his love for her was not dampened in any way. However, she kept cooling him down. “Just rest, Kane,” she said. “I’m taking care of you.”
He collapsed into the sheets, and as he gave over to her ministrations, Angeline focused hard on his flesh. The thought of Noel touching it became something more than a wicked ploy. The son of a bitch had taken what was hers. Angeline’s name on Kane’s shoulder and his body writhing under the ice, made her want to do what he had tried to do for her.
Erase the past. Look to the future.
“Come here,” he said. Angeline let the ice fall to the floor and took his face in her hands. Her kiss stopped just above his lips, and she smiled.
“You need me?” she asked.
Nodding through his longing and his torment, Angeline fell into his kiss again and claimed him. She didn’t stop to ask him if he wanted her lips or her hands. The heat of his breath and the feel of his arms surrounding her was enough. She would heal him with her entire body, and she lifted his bruised back from the bed and held him closer as she kissed his face.
“I need to get past it,” Kane said.
Noel’s face was right there on the horizon of their bliss, and Angeline’s own memories threatened to invade the scene when she looked down at him and kissed him hard. It would take all of her strength to get him past one of the worst moments in his life, and she could not let him down.
Let him up.
Gripping his arms, Angeline let him turn on top of her, and Kane seemed shocked by the feel of her buzzing underneath him. They both knew that such a state could mean nothing but pain if Noel was in command. However, he wasn’t here now.
“I’m not scared,” she said.
“That’s good.”
Kane pushed her blouse away from her body and found her breasts. He started to suckle like a beast possessed, but even as her body longed for his cock inside her, she wanted to give him something more. She wanted to honor his sacrifice and the years that they had lost.
“It’s my turn,” she purred.
Easing Kane to his back, turning every inch of the blanket into a cushion for his bruises, Angeline unzipped his fly and mounted his cock. Now, he felt different inside her—as broken as she was but still strong and craving another chance.
“Kane?”
“Let me have you again,” he said. “You still want me now that you know?”
“Oh, Kane.”
Angeline kissed him quickly and wrapped her arms around his neck. The tips of her nails hit his wounds, but she forgot his injuries when his cock filled her body. She twitched around the throbbing cock, but Kane calmed her with his hands on her shoulders.
“I need it to be sweet again” he said. “Like we were in the woods. Like we always were.”
She got it. The only way to really forget Noel was to do what he never could. And Angeline would do that now.
“Let me,” she began. She lowered her body onto his. The feel of him returning in the light of every truth should have made her body reel and fight. His presence was a brand of danger that she could not risk—not when she had Theo to think of.
“I will keep you safe,” Kane said. “Forever and beyond.”
Putting her own life and the life of her son in his strong hands, Angeline sank deeper and felt his cock expanding inside her. He sought and found her desperate need, and when his cock started to release his lust, her tender pussy swelled to meet all of him. She gripped his ass and lowered her mouth to his. “I’m going to hold you to that,” she said.
Kane nodded up at her and tossed her back to the bed. His body seemed to absorb any lingering pain, and he drove his cock deeper. The feel of his manhood buried in her body caused her to reach back, and she clutched the pillows as he took her. She reveled in the force of his thrusts; but, as she blinked up at him, there was still the hint of pain in his eyes. “Never look at me like that,” she said.
Stretching up to meet him, she held him in her arms, and his lips came close to her ear. “And never be scared with me,” he said. “I’ll always take care of you.”
Angeline settled back and let him fulfill his promise. Kane did that and more, and just when she thought he was finished, Kane pumped all of his need into her before falling into her breasts and kissing her again.
“I swear, Angel,” he said. “I… I just love you.”
That was nearly enough. There was still Theo sleeping in the next room, but Kane could take care of all of them. She loved him for that. Loved that he was back. She responded, “And I love you, too, Kane.”
Suddenly, the door crashed open. Angeline clasped Kane close as she expected the sight of Noel.
“Angie? How could you?”
But it was her father.