“You will.” He reached around her and piled two burgers and a hotdog on a plate.
Kat rolled her eyes. “Hungry?”
Sloane leaned in close. “Starved to see that bikini on you, then rip it off. Since I’m the one who will be destroying your clothes, I’ll be buying them for you.” He picked up his plate and hers, leaving Drake’s for her to carry.
Grabbing a beer and a water, she then joined the others. A few teenage boys wearing board-shorts and shades just like Sloane and John pulled up chairs. In time she sorted out the kids. Ben, the youngest of the boys, was John and Sherry’s son. The other five boys, ranging from about twelve to sixteen, were kids that Sloane, John and Drake mentored. The kids were talking about being out on Sloane’s boat earlier that day. And they were trying to get a game of volleyball going after eating.
Kat eyed the volleyball area set up on the sand just down the deck stairs. Sand and a bunch of teenaged boys trying to prove themselves to a couple ex-UFC fighters sounded like a recipe for pain to her. Now if it was just her and Sloane? She could distract him with her bikini.
She got up, located a paper cup and poured a little beer in it while they all argued about teams. After returning to her seat, she twisted around to hand the cup to Drake while everyone was occupied.
“Sick-looking scars on your leg. How’d you get them?”
Drake grabbed the cup when Kat nearly spilled the beer. Whipping her head around, she looked at the boy who had spoken. She thought his name was Ryan but wasn’t sure. Everyone else stopped talking. Sloane’s gaze settled on her, warm and supportive, but he didn’t say anything.
Suddenly it wasn’t all that big of a deal. The kid had asked a question. She shrugged and pulled her dress up, revealing her leg. “Baseball bat shattered my tibia. It took two plates and a handful of screws to hold it all together.”
“Cool.”
“Awesome.”
Kylie slipped up next to her, all big blue eyes. “Did it hurt a lot?”
She looked so worried, Kat wanted to hug her. Regretting that she’d mentioned a baseball bat, she tried to reassure the little girl. “I was in the hospital. They took care of me and gave me medicine, so I was okay.”
“Does it hurt now? Can I touch it?”
“Kylie.” Sherry stood up.
Kat shook her head at Sherry. “Sure, you can touch it. It only hurts a little bit when I do too much.”
Kylie bent down, skimming the scars with butterfly-soft touches. “It’s kind of bumpy.”
The boys started gathering in. “You could get some ink. That’d be righteous.”
“Oh.” Kylie stood up. “Pretty flowers growing out of the scars. That’d be nice, right, Mommy?”
“Sure, sweetie,” Sherry agreed. “If that’s what Kat wants. It’s her leg.”
Sloane said, “Let’s clean up and get the game going. The team that wins gets first pick of the cupcakes and cookies Kat brought.”
Just like that the moment was over. Everyone jumped up, clearing plates and gathering up leftover food. Kat started to get up.
Sloane leaned over her. “Not you. You’re in time-out for sneaking Drake beer. Now you have to sit there and relax with Drake.”
“That sucks.”
He grinned, took hold of her chin and kissed her. “You’re amazing. You handled that great. How’d it feel?”
His praise made her heart flutter. “Pretty damn good.” Freeing, actually. As if something inside her had unlocked in Sloane’s arms Friday night.
“If my team wins, you lose the dress and I get to show you off in the hot tub. Deal?”
With Sloane this close to her, bravery sang through her. “Deal.”
Chapter Thirteen
Sloane relaxed on his sofa as everyone sprawled on furniture or the floor watching the movie he’d put on. Kat had smirked when Sloane’s team lost, the little tease. Now she sat on the floor with Kylie, drawing out cake designs that thrilled the little girl. He was pretty sure they had gone through his entire supply of printer paper.
The boys were tossing out suggestions. Somehow, she’d ended up promising them all a special cake on their birthdays.
The woman was ridiculously generous and yet she balked when he bought her a few clothes.
“Movie’s over.” John stood up. “Clean up. Time to get the boys home.”
Sloane switched off the DVD player, returning the TV to the station he’d had it on before the movie, and picked up his phone. He sent Ethan a text to bring the limo around in ten minutes to take all the kids home.
“Hey, Sloane, that’s you. And Kat,” Kevin, the kid he’d been mentoring for two years now, said.
What the hell? The video from yesterday morning when Kat had been ambushed by the media played on his TV screen. Hitting the info button, he snarled at what he saw. “Afterburn.” The pseudo-legitimate show tracking crime victims and their families to expose the after burn of their pain. Fucking assholes.
The tape showed yesterday morning exactly as he remembered. Sloane wearing the sweats he’d barely thought to pull on, bursting out of the gates at a dead run. The videographer had caught his enraged expression when Sloane had seen the photographer alternating between banging on Kat’s car window and shooting pictures.
And Kat’s face. Christ, it had been frozen in pale terror.
The shot went wider as Sloane threw the photographer aside and yanked open the door. Then he lifted Kat, his entire body curling around her to shield her from what was happening.
No one seeing that could mistake his feelings for her.
Sherry said, “That was romantic in a caveman kind of way.”
The scene cut to show an outside shot of Sugar Dancer Bakery. “Damn it.” Surging to his feet, he glared at Kat. “The media has been there?”
“Yes, but I didn’t talk to them and they went away. I meant to tell you, but I guess I’ve been busy.” She fixated on the TV screen.
“Are you mad at Kat?” Kylie asked.
“No.” He walked over and scooped Kylie up. “I’m mad at the people bothering her when she’s busy at work.”
“Don’t yell at her.”
God, this little girl had so much of her mom in her. “I promise I won’t yell at Kat.”
“’Kay. You can yell at the people bothering Kat. They aren’t nice. She looked really scared in the car.”
“They aren’t getting near her again.” He handed Kylie off to her mom and tugged Kat against him. “I’ll make sure of it.”
A part of his brain screamed at him to let her go. Make a very public breakup with her. Before Lee Foster decided to follow through on his threats.
But one look at the video as the anchor replayed it again told Sloane it was too late.
Too fucking late.
Sloane’s rage and possession were clearly stamped on his face. What he had done hadn’t even made sense. The logical thing to do would have been to urge her into the passenger seat, get in the car and drive it back into the gated safety of his property.
Sloane hadn’t been thinking rationally. He’d been reacting from pure instinct to get her safe in his arms. Even now, this very moment, he had his arm locked around her shoulders, needing the feel of her against him.
That motherfucker wasn’t getting near Kat.
Sloane was going to make sure of it. Even if it cost him Kat, and it would. But at least she would be safe.
* * *
Kat leaned on the deck railing, watching as the sun started to sink into the ocean. The hot tub bubbled behind her, while in front of her the waves rose and crashed. Sloane was on his phone and laptop, and had his assistant working too, setting up security for her.
The irony that she could be in danger from someone in Sloane’s life was like history repeating itself, except for one detail. When it came down to it, Sloane had told her the truth. He wasn’t lying, wasn’t hiding. That made her feel safer emotionally than she had since that night six years ago.
“Hey.” Sloan
e’s arms came around her. “You have quite a little champion in Kylie.”
She smiled, leaning her head back against his chest. “I’m a lucky woman. I’m going to ask Sherry if I can borrow Kylie for a few hours to make some cookies.”
“She’ll say yes.”
“Speaking of Sherry. Thank you for finding her to help me train. When I need her, though, I’ll make the arrangements and pay her.”
“You can make all the arrangements you want as long as you’re protected. But Sherry will bill me.”
“You can’t—”
“I can because I can afford it. You are going to focus on Sugar Dancer and your expansion plans. Then we’re going to go over those together.” He tightened his arms. “Don’t stiffen or take offense. Part of that is raw curiosity, but part of it is that I want to make sure you’re safe. You’re going to raise your profile significantly to do this. I’m worried about whatever the hell Dickhead’s gotten himself into, and Foster. So this isn’t negotiable.”
Kat watched another wave break, thinking about what he said. “You’re not trying to stop me?”
“No.” He brushed his mouth over her hair. “If you’d let me, I’d make it happen for you.”
Her chest flooded with love and anxiety. “Then it wouldn’t be my success.” She liked working hard and feeling that tired glow of satisfaction. She’d been born creative, but she was learning how to be a businesswoman. Getting stronger every day. In a lot of ways, she was coming to like and respect the woman she was growing into. Kat didn’t want to lose that.
“I get that. So all I’m asking is that you let me look at your plans to provide security for you. Protection. I’ll probably offer advice. We may argue about it. But in the end, Sugar Dancer is yours. You make the decisions as long as you’re safe from harm.”
All those years her parents had tried to protect her by forcing her into being something she wasn’t. That’s not what Sloane was doing. He wanted to protect her while she was going after her dreams. He was giving her so much, flooding her with lush feelings and a sense of herself. “For years, I’ve lived shrouded in gray that was broken only by the colors of my bakery. Sugar Dancer brought me those pretty flashes of color that kept me going. But I thought that was as good as it was going to get. Because I was damaged. Broken. I’d already been born average, but after the attack, I was so much less.”
“You were always more. Always.”
“That right there, Sloane—those little words are brilliant colors that light up my world, that make my blood sing and my heart feel so much it hurts in the best possible way.” She leaned against him for courage. “I told you once I didn’t see myself falling for you. But I was wrong.” She left it there. Kat wasn’t trying to scare Sloane off, she just wanted him to know she cared about him.
His silence made the rolling waves and bubbling hot tub seem too loud. Too ominous.
Even her stab of disappointment was sharper, but she accepted it. They had what they had, and it was enough. More than she’d ever had. She would always cherish this time with Sloane.
“When Sara and I were growing up, Olivia did the whole love thing with any guy who looked her way. Everything else stopped. We stopped existing in her world. If she had a job at all, she ended up fired because nothing mattered but that guy.”
Kat hated the woman she’d never met. “She was horribly selfish.”
“That’s all I’ve ever known about love. That’s all I saw growing up. I was headed for a hell of a lot of trouble when Drake found me.”
“That was before Sara…before it happened?”
“Yes. He let me train in his gym, worked with me in mixed martial arts and helped me find odd jobs to pay for lessons. But I got so focused on that, I wasn’t there when Sara needed me.”
Kat turned in his arms. With the sun sinking behind her, his eyes were shadowed with endless guilt. “You didn’t kill her.”
“Not directly, no. But I abandoned her just as surely as Olivia had.”
“Your mother—” Kat understood now why he didn’t call her mom; the woman had no right to the title, “—abandoned both of you.”
He shrugged that off and held her face in his hands. “I care about you more than I thought it was even possible. Feel things I’ve never felt. Probably love. But here’s what I know. I’m going to fuck this up and lose you. Because as much as I want to deny it, I’m my mother’s son.”
“You’re wrong. You don’t abandon people. Like Drake, who is sleeping in your guest suite turned into a virtual hospital room with every convenience he could dream of, knowing he is surrounded by those who love him as he fights his last fight.” Tears burned her eyes, but she didn’t care. The way Sloane cared for Drake, that was real and made her chest ache. “You are nothing like her.”
His chest and shoulders expanded as he dragged in a breath. Wiping away the single tear that fell, he said, “I love that you believe that.”
“I know it.” She wasn’t saying he wouldn’t break her heart. Maybe Kat was what Sloane needed right now, but not forever. Later, he may want a woman who was less bakery-chic and more society-ready. That didn’t make what they had now any less real. “Let’s just focus on what we have now. Sort of a plus-one-plus relationship and not make it complicated.”
The corners of his mouth kicked up. “Plus-one-plus. That means I get to see that bikini you’ve been taunting me with for hours.” The pain in his eyes receded.
Kat liked the feel of his gaze on her. She reached back and untied the halter strings on the dress, then let it slide down her body until it pooled on the deck.
“Damn, woman.”
His voice came out a growl, his heated stare going down and up in a slow path. His black board-shorts did nothing to hide his growing reaction.
“Turn.”
Feeling sexy, she pivoted to see the bottom edge of the sun dip into the ocean. An illusion, but a beautiful one. Kat leaned her arms on the railing, thrusting her butt out. Her hair fell around her shoulders. She was posing for him, and the groan that came from Sloane told her it was working.
Covering her back with his body, he pushed her hair aside. “I’m going to make love to you here. Now. While we watch the sunset together.”
Kat gave herself over to the powerful touch of Sloane. He stripped her bikini bottoms off and eased his cock deep inside her, touching her where no one else ever had. Right then, she wished she could freeze this moment in time forever.
This one perfect moment.
Chapter Fourteen
Kat stored the finished cake in the huge refrigerator. First one she’d ever done with a ménage a trois theme. Kat should totally join the book club that had ordered the cake. Talk about having fun. She closed the fridge and set to work washing her tools.
“Hey.”
“Kellen.” She turned off the water and grabbed a towel. “What are you doing here?”
“Bored. I want to start my new job already.”
Leaning her hip against the counter, she tossed her towel down. “Whiner. You only have a little over a week left before the doctor will clear you to work for SLAM.” She had to admit, Kellen did look good for having been stabbed a few weeks ago. “So you’re here to complain?”
“Nope. Ana called me. Said you haven’t given her the final picture for the trailers.”
“Crap. I meant to.”
“Does the idea of seeing the pictures upset you?”
“No.” Not anymore. “But I don’t want Sloane to see them. And I’ve been spending so much time with him, I just put it off.” Kat poured some coffee and took it to the stainless-steel work table. Perched on her stool, she rested her bad leg on the rung beneath the table.
“You think Sloane would react badly to seeing the pictures?” Kellen snagged her laptop from the small desk, dragged a stool over and sat.
“Badly?” She rolled her eyes. “Have you noticed I have a new wardrobe of bodyguards?”
“Hard to miss since they insist on checking th
e condo before you come inside. Saw the chick reading a book at the table out in the front too.”
“That’s Whitney, an ex-cop trying to look like a customer.” Kat liked her. She was friendly but stayed out of the way.
“She blends well enough. I noticed her since there’s no one else in the shop right now. The afternoon lull.”
Thank God for those. “So Ana really called you to tattle on me?” Guilt nagged her. Ana was working her butt off. Kat had agreed to this, and she wasn’t holding up her end.
He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the flash drive. “She called because she worried about pushing you to do something you weren’t ready to do. She didn’t want you to be alone when you looked at the pictures.”
“You came to look at them with me.” When had her life become so rich with friends? So full of color? Oh she’d known she could rely on Kellen. But Ana caring enough to call Kellen? And now she had Sloane, and he’d introduced her to Drake, Sherry, John and their kids. In a way, Sloane had also inspired her to reach out to her brother. Sloane had given her the courage to take some risks and live again. A new joy tugged at her heart.
“Why do you have a loopy-ass grin on your face? Snap out of it.”
She laughed. “Thanks, Kel.”
He shoulder-bumped her. “Anytime.” He loaded the flash drive then moved the computer to her. “Let’s do this.”
She used the touchpad to open up the first picture.
Kel flinched. “Rough.”
One of her eyes was swollen shut, her face a mass of bruises, and scabs crusted her lips. A wave of sympathy pressed on her chest, much like she’d feel for anyone in that condition. Kat traced the cast on her arm and the brace on her leg. “Leg’s in traction, so that was before the first surgery to stabilize the bone.”
“Do you remember much of that time?”
“Some of it’s hazy from the meds and the concussion.” She mostly remembered the pain and confusion.
“They beat the ever-lovin’ hell out of you.” His eyes brewed with anger.
“If this is going to upset you, go have a brownie and hang out with Whitney in the front. I can handle this.” She didn’t want him reliving his own memories of an abusive relationship.
Possession (The Plus One Chronicles) Page 13