He’s busy. He’s a CEO. His hands are full. That’s what I told myself, though deep down, I was finding it hard to stick to. Fortunately, Mom came to my room with good news, just two days before I was about to head off to college.
Cane was coming over for dinner.
As soon as I got the news, I hopped off the bed and rushed to my closet to find something nice to wear. I went with a soft pink dress that made my boobs look bigger and my waist narrow.
I hadn’t heard from him in five days. I didn’t know if he’d had a trip out of state or what, but since he was coming over, things were going to be okay. I would see him. Even though I was curious why he hadn’t checked in, that was all that mattered.
I straightened my hair and did my makeup, taking my time on the wing of my eyeliner. While adding my mascara, the doorbell rang, and Dad called my name, which meant my time for getting ready was up. It was time to greet our guest as a family, like we always did.
“Don’t give too much away,” I told my reflection. “He’s just a friend. A friend. Nothing happened.”
I drew in a breath and nodded at myself before going past the stacked boxes and bins in my room to get to the door. I made my way down the stairs and stepped around the corner just as the door swung open.
He was the first thing I saw. His hair was freshly trimmed and appeared like it was lightly fingered with gel. He had a bottle of red wine in his hand and held it up when Dad greeted him. Dad accepted it, and they did their brotherly handshake and hug.
I stood a few steps away, breath dwindling, my legs locked, as he stepped through the threshold and smiled at Mom before giving her a hug.
When he was done with her, all that was left was me.
His eyes met mine first…but they weren’t soft, per usual. They were hard and distant. Cloudier than they were the week before. I frowned instantly. These weren’t the same eyes that I’d last seen. These weren’t the soft, mostly green, sincere eyes that looked at me with nothing but love and adoration. They were gray and unreadable. I blinked rapidly as he looked away to peer over his shoulder.
And then I saw her.
She came through the door with a short red dress on, her makeup flawless, and her hair half-up, half down. She gave my parents a hug around the shoulders with a smile and chimed, “So good to see you guys!”
When I saw her, my heart fucking failed me.
I wanted to swallow, but couldn’t. I wanted to run, but knew I wasn’t allowed to overreact. I wanted to slap the shit out of Cane right where he stood, but knew it would have started a shitstorm that he apparently wasn’t worth. I hated that I couldn’t do anything but stare and look helpless. My eyes became hot and prickly, and I dropped my head when Cane met up to Kelly’s side.
“Wanna help me get the dinner set up, sweetie?” Mom asked. I looked up at her and nodded, and I swear I wanted to cry on the spot. My heart hurt so much. My stomach was in knots. What was going on? Why was he doing this to me? Why was she with him? He wasn’t hers; he was mine!
How could he…
“Yeah,” I said to Mom, and followed her to the kitchen, doing my best to ignore the conversation Dad was having with Kelly and Cane about his new line of wine coolers.
While I helped get the food on the table, I tried wrapping my head around what was going on. I had no answers or solutions. I knew we were only supposed to be friends, but why did he go back to her so quickly? Was it that easy for him to get over me?
Kelly and Dad came into the dining room, and Kelly complimented how great dinner looked, as always. I rolled my eyes and didn’t even give a fuck if she saw.
“I’ll go check on the chicken,” Mom called.
“Oh, I’ll come with you,” Kelly said. She and Mom went to the deck to check the grill and Dad headed out with them, winking at me on the way. I forced a smile at him, and as soon as they were out of sight, I hurried out of the dining room and rushed out the front door.
Cane was standing beside his car with a cigarette pinched between his lips. He’d just gotten off the phone, lowering it and staring down at it with a grimace.
“What the fuck, Cane?” I hissed before the door could even shut behind me. He looked over his shoulder with a continued grimace, but when he caught sight of me, his eyes softened for the first time that night. “Why is she here?” I demanded. “Why would you bring her back around after what we did? And so fast—you couldn’t wait two more days until I was gone?”
“Kandy…please, just go back inside.” He shoved rough fingers through his hair. “I’m not in the mood for this shit tonight.”
“No—fuck that, Cane. You tell me why you would do something like this? You haven’t answered my calls or texts in days. You’ve been completely ignoring me after checking in with me every day, and then you show up with her? I mean, I know I’m inexperienced, but was it so bad that you had to go back to Kelly?”
Cane’s head shook, his jaw tight and flexing. “Just move on from me, like I told you to do.” He tossed his cigarette down and stepped on the butt of it with the tip of his shoe, then walked around me to get to the door.
“Cane!” I wailed after him. “Talk to me!”
But he didn’t. He kept walking and didn’t bother looking back.
“Please,” I begged, but my voice had cracked and was much softer than before. He was walking through the door before I could blink my tears away. The tears stung and my throat thickened. I couldn’t believe this. He seemed so into me—so determined to hold onto me and keep me as his…but then this happens?
I bit back tears as long as I could, looking around my neighborhood, feeling like everyone was watching. I couldn’t cry out here, and I didn’t want Mom or Dad to see me, so I rushed into the house, where Cane was nowhere in sight, and hurried for the stairs. Before I could make it to the staircase, though, the downstairs bathroom door swung open and stopped me in my tracks.
Kelly walked out with a gasp, holding a hand to her chest. “Oh, Kandy, I’m so sorry—”
“I need to get to my room.” The tears were becoming harder and harder to control, so I lightly shoved my way past her and ran up the stairs. I didn’t give a fuck if I was being rude. Fuck her. Fuck them both.
“Kandy?” she called. “Is everything okay?”
I ignored her. As soon as I made it to my room, I let my walls crumble. I sat on the edge of my bed and curled over. I felt a pain in my stomach I’d never felt before—an ache that I knew would never dull or be soothed unless a certain someone came to fill that aching hole.
But that person was an asshole.
He was a heartless bastard.
He never gave a fuck about my feelings.
He got what he wanted and then disappeared. And not only that, he shoved another woman in my face. It was like the two days we spent together meant absolutely nothing to him.
The tears were salty and hot, and I tried hard to muffle the sounds so that, if someone were to pass, they wouldn’t hear me. Instead, I drew my knees up to my chest, buried my face into my thighs, and bawled. I cried so hard I couldn’t breathe, and truthfully with my thighs in the way, it wasn’t easy.
I believe five minutes passed by before I heard someone knocking on the door. I jerked my head up with a gasp and waited to see if the person would go away. They didn’t. There was another knock on the door.
“What?” I called.
“Kandy, it’s me. Kelly.”
I frowned then. I didn’t want to see her right now. I was angry with her, when I honestly shouldn’t have been. She didn’t know about Cane and me. She didn’t know that he’d stolen my virginity with pretty words and lies and was now treating me like a piece of shit. Now that I thought about it, I would have been better off giving Carl my virginity. At least with him, he wouldn’t have been so quick to walk away or ignore me.
“Can I come in?” she asked, and I sighed, swiping the tears off my face, though I was sure it wouldn’t cover up the hurt.
“I guess,” I mumbled.<
br />
The door pushed open and Kelly walked in with wide eyes. “Are you okay?” she asked.
I pressed my lips and shook my head. “I’ll be fine.”
“Boy troubles?”
I shrugged.
She was quiet for a moment, watching me. I avoided her eyes. I hated crying in front of people. Hated it. I didn’t like anyone seeing me weak or vulnerable…no one besides Cane, obviously.
Kelly finally made a move by shutting the door quietly and then taking a step closer my way.
“Problems with Cane?” she asked, and that caught me completely off guard.
My brows drew together when I picked my head up to meet her eyes. I expected to see a soft, sincere expression, but instead her eyebrows were knitted too, her entire face tight and stern.
“W-what?” I asked.
“You heard me,” she said. Even her voice sounded different—sharper, without the soft touch of a southern accent she’d had previously.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’d like to be left alone right now.”
She tilted her chin with an agitated sigh. Pulling her white clutch from beneath her arm, she opened it and took something out. She then tossed the object my way. It was a pair of panties. My panties.
I dropped my legs in a flash, pushing off the bed. “Why do you have these?” I demanded.
“No, Kandy. I think the question is why were your panties in Cane’s suitcase?” She cocked a brow.
I had nothing to say. I was speechless. Utterly and completely dumbstruck. Kelly huffed a laugh, tucking her clutch beneath her armpit, and took a step to the side. She gave my room a sweep with her eyes, walking around like she had nowhere else to be.
“The thing is that I knew you liked him. I’ve always known. I see the way you look at him, like you’re waiting for something to happen. You are head over heels for him, and I get that. I mean, Cane is a handsome man. And wealthy too. He has this way of making a woman feel…wanted.” Her eyes sparked as she took a step toward me. “For a while, I thought it was one-sided, but then the beach happened…and I noticed the way he looked at you, and I’d never seen it before. He looked at you like he wanted fuck you all over that house. I noticed how protective he was of you. I even noticed when you two would disappear at the same times…and then I remembered our last night there, when he called me by someone else’s name.” She pressed a hand to her chin and tapped it, as if she were deep in thought. My palms were slick, my jaw slack as I watched her. “Bits, that’s what it was. Bits. I had no idea who Bits was…until I heard him call you by that name the next morning. But still,” she continued, “I ignored it and gave him the benefit of the doubt. I mean, what would Quinton Cane, a thirty-five year old man with a million-dollar company, want with a girl who is nearly half his age? It just didn’t make any sense, so of course I just considered myself crazy and figured your little crush on him was getting to my head. He did pay you much more attention than me, and he asked a lot of questions about you, but I’d considered it nothing. I needed time to think, so I eventually got back to my senses and paid him a little visit a few nights ago. He wasn’t home yet, so I decided to wait for him…and that’s when I noticed the unpacked suitcase. And that’s when I found those in the side pocket.” She pointed at my panties on the bed. “I remember them very well. Pink with red hearts. I picked them out for you when we went on our little shopping spree in Destin. Remember?”
Her eyes were hard on me. I’d never seen her like this—almost vicious, like she wanted to rip my throat out.
“Kelly, I—I swim at Cane’s house almost every other day. I used his shower and probably just forgot to grab my panties.”
“Oh, Kandy.” She made a tsk noise. “You poor, sweet girl.” She came closer, but was still staring me down. “I may seem like the nicest, most oblivious woman ever, but trust me…I’m not. I notice everything. Just like I’ve noticed how much Cane admires you—how badly he wants to keep you in his life—I’ve also noticed how riled up Derek can get when he’s tested. I know the extremes he would go for his daughter. You are his world, and Cane is his best friend. If he found out that Cane touched you in that way…well, he would never look at him or you the same again. He would despise Cane…quite possibly ruin his life and career. And for you…well, the trust would be broken, don’t you think? Your parents won’t see you as their sweet, innocent, beautiful girl anymore. They won’t know what to do with you.”
My chest grew tighter. Fuck, I could hardly breathe. I stumbled back when she neared me, her back straight. “Cane had one rule to follow tonight and that was to not talk or look at you. No alone time with you. No running off to be alone, just to see if you would follow. None of that. He is to never be alone with you again. I told him that if it happened, I would tell Derek and Mindy everything they don’t know, and trust me, the last thing Quinton wants is to lose his friends, the few people who truly accept him for who he is. He also doesn’t want his life ruined over a teenager.”
I tried to swallow, but it felt like I was swallowing glass.
“So the same goes for you, sweetie. If I see you so much as look at him in that way, talk to him in that way, or even touch him when you walk by, I will inform your parents. Your father won’t be happy, and just may end up doing something that will ruin both Cane’s and his own life. His career will be tarnished, and your mother will be left to deal with a filthy, desperate daughter she can’t handle, and a husband with a short temper. Your perfect little life, with your perfect family, will be torn apart.” She stabbed two stiff fingers into my chest. I gasped sharply, tumbling backwards and landing on top of the stuffed toys in the corner.
Kelly smirked and shook her head. “Look at you. Pathetic. And you really thought he would give everything up for you? You’re nothing but a secret to him, Kandy. A memory. Go to college and live your life, and stop trying to ruin mine. Make it easier on yourself and forget about him, because I’m sure he’s already starting to forget about you.”
With that, she spun around and walked to the door, yanking on the doorknob with a twist and walking out.
45
CANE
This was for the best.
I loved Kandy, I really did, but there was so much on the line—so many opportunities laid out before me.
My friendships.
My company.
My family.
My life.
Giving in meant all of what I’d tried to keep buried would come crashing down on me. I had to play my cards right.
You hate me now, but you’ll understand soon.
You’ll see…
It was for the best.
46
KANDY
There were too many questions running through my head—too much heartache for me to bear alone. I had one more day left in Georgia, and I needed answers. Immediately.
During dinner, I couldn’t even look at him. The worst part of it was that I had to sit and watch Kelly touch him and pretend everything was okay. I had to sit in the midst of laughter and joy while my heart felt heavy with gloom. Cane didn’t look or interact with me at all. After dinner was over, I went straight to my room to soak my pillow.
After thinking about it all night, I realized that I didn’t care about Kelly’s threats. I could go to him without her knowing. He wouldn’t tell her I showed. I wanted him to tell me to my face that he was already over me, without her threats lingering above us. It was the only way I could accept it and move on, like I should have been doing before.
If I could hear the truth from him, then I’d let it all go. I’d forget, like he told me to.
With that in mind, I got dressed in jeans and a nice blouse, but didn’t bother with any makeup. I didn’t have the energy, and my eyes were too damn puffy from crying to even bother. I was glad both my parents had to work that morning, but they’d promised they would be back later that afternoon to help me finish packing and getting ready.
I grabbed my keys and headed to my
car. When I got behind the wheel, I searched my GPS for Tempt’s address. Once found, I started the car and drove off.
Though it was only a twenty-five minute drive, it felt like an eternity. All these thoughts roamed through my brain, intertwining and colliding. Some of them screamed for me to spare my heart and go back home. Others told me to keep going and get answers.
When I spotted the tall building, I parallel parked in front of it, then sat there a moment. Was I really about to do this? Was I that desperate for answers?
After shutting off the car and yanking the keys out, I found out that I was. I pushed out and headed straight for the spinning doors. There was a woman at the front desk, but she was occupied, so I went for the elevator before she could spot me.
When it chimed and the doors opened, she looked over at me. “Hey! Excuse me!” she called, but I ignored her, tucking my hair behind my ear and rushing into the elevator. I jabbed my thumb into the button to make the doors shut, and then stared at the numbers. Cane was the boss. If he was going to be anywhere, I assumed he would be on the top floor or somewhere near it. I pressed the highest number—15—and my belly dropped with the lift.
The numbers ticked by so damn slowly. I chewed on my fingernail as I anxiously waited.
Finally it stopped. The doors pulled apart, and this floor looked completely different from the first one. This one had floors made of dark gray marble, and at the end of the walkway was a desk. It was vacant. I stepped off, and the elevator doors closed behind me. It was quiet.
Too quiet, almost.
I took several steps forward, hearing something behind the door ahead.
A voice. His voice. He’s here.
I sped up my pace and went to the door at the end of the hall. It was halfway open, and through the crack, I saw Cane pass by with a white button-down on, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. “I need that delivered by tonight, Cora. No—it can’t wait until morning. They guaranteed it would be ready tonight, and I want it there. We will be too busy tomorrow to even deal with that. Good. Thank you for handling it.”
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