*** ~~ *** ~~ *** ~~ ***
Three months later...
Three o’clock could not have come fast enough for Kane. He’d been anticipating this morning for the last week, and now that it was here, he was admittedly feeling a little nervous.
With Haley at Lucie’s mother’s house for the next few days, Kane knew it was time for him to seize the opportunity. Because Lucie wouldn’t have any excuses, he was looking forward to getting some things hashed out between them. The tip toeing around, avoiding eye contact, and otherwise ignoring one another was seriously beginning to piss him off.
Although he went to see Haley every single day because he was so enthralled by the miracle that was his daughter, Kane and Lucie didn’t seem to be making any headway. In fact, she seemed to be pulling away more and more each time he tried to get closer. That was mostly his fault, he knew. Ever since that creep Justin Jones came into the picture about a month ago, Kane hadn’t been able to be around Lucie without getting pissed off.
Maybe he didn’t have the right to tell her whom she could and could not date, but Kane didn’t like the little shit who had been stalking her at least three or four nights a week at the club one bit. He had to hand it to Lucie, she handled him fairly well. Kane wasn’t entirely convinced they were actually dating, but he still felt the need to interfere any time the opportunity presented itself.
Kane knew Lucie was extremely careful with Haley – probably a tad on the paranoid side, in fact. And as far as he knew, Justin had never even been introduced to his little girl. If he had anything to say about it, he never would either.
Admittedly, it had taken a little while for him to get past the initial anger and resentment of Lucie’s deceit, but now that he was, Kane was beginning to think about things he knew he shouldn’t. Like getting Lucie in his bed – or hers – he didn’t care either way. The fact that she hadn’t dated another man as far as he knew for the last few years probably hadn’t helped him either. The problem was, he’d been stupid enough to hold back because he hadn’t had any real motivation to pursue her. Until now.
Since he couldn’t clearly remember anything about that one night so long ago when he’d obviously taken what he had wanted for so long, Kane was anxious to go back there. Only this time without the alcohol impairing him.
Even without the memories, each time he was close to Lucie, he got the sense of what her skin felt like beneath his fingertips. It was quite possible that his subconscious remembered her, the feel of her soft, smooth skin, the taste of her sweet mouth, but he wasn’t satisfied with almost knowing. He was ready to experience all of those things again, and those were the G rated visions he had about her. His cock wasn’t able to decipher between real and make believe, so those fleeting images that came out of nowhere to fuck with his mind had a damn near painful effect on him.
Unable to remember anything they did that night, he couldn’t help imagining what it would feel like to have his cock buried in her sassy mouth, or sliding between her better than perfect tits, or deep in her pussy while he made her scream his name as she came. Or better yet, buried to the hilt in her ass while he gripped her hair in his fist, taking her in ways he’d only ever dreamed about.
Kane wasn’t a gentle lover, never had been, nor did he feel the need to pretend he was. His desire was ferocious, his urges brutal, and all of his desire had been aimed at Lucie for as long as he could remember. Now he just had to find a way to satisfy his craving for this woman once and for all.
And Kane was sure as shit not about to let some young punk come in and intrude on what he wanted more than his next breath.
“You going home?” Kane asked when Lucie tried to walk past him without as much as a goodbye.
He hadn’t seen Justin in the club all night, and he only could hope she didn’t have any plans with the man now that Haley would be at her mother’s for a few days. If she didn’t plan to go home, her plans were about to change.
“Yes and I know the drill now, Kane. I’ll call you as soon as I get there.” Her tone was guarded, her eyes filled with irritation.
“I’m coming by,” he informed her, and he hoped she heard the lack of request in his tone. He wasn’t asking permission.
“Haley’s not there. She’s at my mother’s.”
“I know,” Kane replied. “That’s why I’m coming by. We need to talk.”
Lucie eyed him suspiciously for a minute, maybe two before she shook her head, telling him no. “I’m too tired right now. Can we do this tomorrow?”
“No.” That was his final answer. Kane wasn’t putting this off any longer. They didn’t have to talk if she didn’t want to, but he was still going to her house. Whatever this was that he felt for her, he was almost certain she felt it too. Since this was the perfect opportunity to test the waters, he wasn’t going to back down on this one.
“I’ll be there in half an hour,” Kane said, “I’ve got to finish up here.”
“Kane, I don’t –”
Before Lucie could come up with any more excuses, Kane pressed up against her, eliminating all of the space that had been separating them. He placed his finger on her lips to shut her up, although he’d have much preferred to use his mouth, but he was cognizant of where they were. “I’m coming over. You better be there when I get there.”
Rolling her eyes and sighing deeply, Lucie nodded her head briefly then spun on her heel and walked away.
He knew she recognized the frustration in his tone, but he was willing to bet she didn’t realize every ounce of it was sexual in nature and he was past the point of waiting for her to come around.
It was time they got some things cleared up – including those damn memories that still eluded him.
~~*~~
Driving home in the dark hours of the early morning, Lucie wondered whether the pounding of her heart was actually the first signs of a heart attack. Ever since Kane mentioned that he was coming by, she’d been feeling strange. Between the constant thump of her heart against her ribs, and the roar of blood in her ears, she was beginning to get a little worried.
Kane’s words reverberated back and forth in her head, leaving her wondering whether she had actually heard him correctly. Not the words necessarily, but the way he said them. He’d thrown her off balance with his domineering attitude, but even more so when he pressed his finger to her lips.
For a second there, Lucie hadn’t known whether her knees were actually going to hold her upright. She wanted to believe that the hunger she detected in his words was real, but she was worried her overactive imagination might just be getting the better of her. After all, she hadn’t been sleeping well for a few months now, so it was quite possible.
Until recently, when Kane began shooting daggers from his eyes whenever Justin Jones would come visit her at the club, he had been totally indifferent to her. Or at least she thought he had been.
His interference hadn’t been needed because Lucie had positively no interest in Justin. He continued to ask her out, she continued to turn him down. Since Haley was her first and foremost priority, Lucie didn’t give a second thought to dating a man that she knew wouldn’t be long term material. Not that she was necessarily looking for long term, but if anything were to happen, she needed to know that it was at least a possibility.
No matter how many times she thought about those overprotective glances that Kane delivered her direction, she couldn’t wrap her mind around any reason why. Well, other than him wanting to ensure that his daughter always came first. He didn’t have anything to worry about there, but she hadn’t necessarily explained that to him.
It boggled her mind that she still had the audacity to think Kane might have a slight interest in her. After what she’d done, Lucie was surprised he even chose to speak to her. Even though she secretly wished that there was something between the two of them, she knew better than to get her hopes up.
Even that one night when she’d given herself over to Kane, the night Haley was conceived, she hadn’t been convinced that he actually wanted anything more than sex from her. Considering she didn’t have it in her to do casual relationships, it didn’t make sense how much she still craved his touch. Especially on those lonely nights when she couldn’t get her mind to shut down because it constantly returned to images of the two of them together. Not even touching herself could alleviate the ache that had only intensified over the years.
Thinking back on the night at Club Destiny when she and Kane and a couple of the other bartenders had been sitting around talking had become a frequent occurrence for her lately. She could still remember the feeling that something was wrong with Kane that night. Sticking around to see if he wanted to talk about it had set everything in motion.
He hadn’t wanted to talk. Well, not about what was bothering him anyway.
Instead, he’d indulged repeatedly in shots of bourbon as they chit chatted about nothing important until Lucie finally decided it was time to call it a night. Kane had agreed, but when she’d seen his intention to drive himself home, Lucie had interjected.
That was her first mistake of many that night.
Calling a cab hadn’t even been a consideration for her, yet she didn’t know why. It was the first thing she thought about when they encountered someone who had overindulged at the club. She remembered thinking that she would never forgive herself if she let him walk out of there and he was hurt or killed, or someone else was, because of his overindulgence. It had taken remarkably little persuading to convince Kane to let her take him home. After forcing him into her car, she managed to pry the directions to his house from him before he closed his eyes.
She had thought he’d passed out, but when they arrived at his house, he was immediately awake and talking once more. Her intention had been to let him out at the curb and continue on to her apartment, but that wasn’t what happened. He had seemed a little more alert when his eyes opened, and he looked at her, so when he asked her to come in, she’d ignored all of those warning bells that had been clanging for the entire drive to his house.
“Want a drink?” Kane asked as they made it through the front door after he fumbled the keys two or three times.
Lucie knew he was past the point of needing another drink, so she passed on his offer, but followed him to the kitchen anyway.
“No thanks,” Lucie answered, feigning interest in her surroundings.
His house was immaculate, not that she had expected anything less. Kane dressed like a man who had money. He didn’t try to make a fashion statement, but his jeans were always expensive, his shirts always trendy and in style. Not to mention, she should’ve been tipped off as soon as she turned into his neighborhood. She had no idea what kind of money he made as the bar manager, but she didn’t actually care either.
As she stood in the kitchen trying to divert her eyes from the sexy as hell man standing not two feet away, she began to fidget, suddenly wanting to go home. She shouldn’t be there, she knew that much. Not with Kane in his current state of mind, obviously pissed off and now intoxicated as hell.
“I should go,” she said, daring to make eye contact with him.
Kane moved closer, and she could smell his sultry cologne, the scent she dreamed about in the middle of the night. Despite the fact that both of them had that lingering smell of alcohol and cigarettes thanks to working at the bar, Lucie was overwhelmed by the unique scent of him, which overpowered everything else.
“Lucie,” Kane whispered her name as he took two steps closer, suddenly closing the gap between them and effectively backing her up against the granite countertop.
She didn’t break eye contact, noticing the way the steel gray color had darkened, swirling like storm clouds. The single curl that had fallen over his forehead beckoned her fingers to brush it back, and then delve into the silken mass to see if it was as soft as it looked.
“Touch me, Lucie,” Kane insisted, and for a moment she wondered if she imagined it.
There wasn’t an ounce of gentleness in his tone, strictly fierce hunger and need. It was something she’d come to expect from Kane, but never had she expected him to turn the heat on her.
“Touch me, baby,” Kane said again, this time with more insistence.
Lucie knew she should go, knew she should run out the front door and forget this night ever happened, but instead she did what she’d longed to do for the past year.
Lifting her hand, she placed her trembling fingers against the hard planes of his chest, letting the warmth of his skin penetrate through the soft cotton of his t-shirt. His chest was broad and thick, and Lucie was mesmerized by how small her hands looked in comparison to him.
He couldn’t have been much more than six feet tall, but at five-foot-six, he still peered down at her. She could feel his heartbeat beneath her palm, and when she looked back up at his eyes, she recognized the same lust burning bright and hot just as it was in her. She knew that if she gave in to this man, he was going to alter her in ways she wasn’t entirely sure she would be able to survive.
Lucie shook off the memory when she pulled into the parking space in front of her apartment. If she’d have known then exactly how much he would change her life, she would have turned and run like she wanted to.
Without any additional thoughts about Kane or what the night might bring, Lucie ran to her apartment as she considered her surroundings. By the time she was inside, she was breathless, but feeling a little more normal.
As she moved to put her purse on the bar, a knock sounded at her door, and she jumped. Shit. Lucie had hoped to at least have a shower before Kane showed up. Without thought, she opened the door; not wanting him to knock again for fear that the noise might disturb her neighbors. She didn’t want to give them any reason to hate her.
“You said you would be at the club for another half hour,” she huffed in exasperation as she shut the door behind him.
Her apartment wasn’t big by any stretch of the imagination, but when Kane walked in, it suddenly felt even smaller.
“I couldn’t wait,” Kane remarked, making his way into the apartment.
Couldn’t wait for what? To come over there and tell her how every decision she’d ever made was the wrong one? Hell, she knew that already, so he wouldn’t be telling her anything new.
“For what?” she asked, flipping the deadbolt before turning to face him.
Oh hell.
Looking up into his eyes, Lucie knew her life was about to veer off course yet again.