Playing with Temptation

by Reese Ryan

  Vi sighed. “I promise to take it easy on you, but you have to promise me you’ll either love my brother or let him go.”

  “There you are.” Kendra’s mother came around the corner. “Just making sure you got in all right.” Her gaze shifted between the two of them, then followed Vi as she returned to the kitchen. She lowered her voice. “Everything all right?”

  “Nothing to worry about.” She kissed her mother on the cheek.

  “Good. Then I’ll go and give Naomi and the girls a hand in the kitchen.”

  Kendra made her way into the great room. The place was overflowing with the Johnston family: Naomi and Levi; Mitchell, his wife, Monique, and their adorable infant daughter, Stella; Marcus, Alison and their two boys; Vi, Sydney and their oldest brother, Drew. The only Johnston not present was their youngest brother, Quincy, a freelance photographer on a shoot in Qatar.

  Liam and Maya were caught up in an animated conversation with Monique and Mitchell—Liam’s second-in-command at Pleasure Cove Luxury Resort.

  Kendra sank onto the couch beside Drew and slipped her arm through his. “Thank you again for agreeing to do those interviews for the foundation. I know that went a long way in helping fix Nate’s career and increasing funding.”

  “Glad I could help Nate for a change.”

  Drew’s slow, crooked smile made her heart melt. He was handsome and easily the smartest of the bunch. After an attack on his unit in Fallujah, he struggled with PTSD and had been forced to retire from the military. He often opted to stay at home or called it an early night, fearful he’d have an episode.

  “You’ve done so much for the family, and for our country. Don’t you dare think otherwise.”

  Drew patted her hand. “Thanks, Dray. But we should be thanking you. Without you, not sure we’d be celebrating Nate’s return to the Marauders.”

  “My thoughts exactly, big brother.” Nate stood in front of them, looking handsome enough to eat in a light blue sweater and a pair of charcoal-gray pants. He clinked a fork gently against his glass to get everyone’s attention, then asked them to fill their glasses.

  Nate raised his glass and turned to her with a wide smile that made her heart dance.

  “To Kendra Williams, the smartest, most beautiful and most talented woman I’ve ever known. You’ve given me a chance to finish out my career with the team I love and another shot at winning it all. Most important, you’ve given me the best gift I could ever ask for—our son, Kai. To Kendra.”

  They clinked glasses and drank champagne, her heart overflowing with the love in the room and the love in Nate’s eyes.

  After the toast, Nate grabbed her hand and led her to his office.

  “Maybe you should have a seat.”

  “Why, is something wrong?” She sat down, a sinking feeling in her stomach.

  “Nothing’s wrong.” He sat beside her. “But I’ve invited someone here to see you.”

  “Who?”

  Nate pushed the intercom button and asked someone to come to his office.

  “Nate, what’s going on? You’re making me really nervous now.” She studied his face, but he turned his attention to the footsteps coming down the hall and the door that slowly creaked open.

  “Hello, Kendra.”

  “Dad? What are you doing here?” She turned to Nate, her voice lowered. “You invited him? Why?”

  “Hear him out,” Nate pleaded.

  Kendra folded her arms. “My mother knew he was coming, didn’t she?”

  “I wanted to make sure she and your sister were okay with this.” Nate placed a reassuring hand on hers. “We all want you to be happy, and you might not think so right now, but the state of your relationship with your father has caused a lot of pain.”

  She pulled her hand away. “That’s my problem, Nate, not yours.”

  “You don’t think it was my problem when you walked out because you were afraid you couldn’t trust me? That it isn’t Maya’s problem when she won’t set a date for her own wedding because of your dysfunctional relationship with your father?”

  Kendra’s face was hot. Each stinging accusation felt like a jab with a hot cattle prod.

  “I know what I’m asking isn’t easy, but it’s important. To all of us.” He whispered in her ear. “If something happened to your father tonight, would you be okay with how you two have left things?”

  “No.” The answer came without thought.

  “Then talk to him. You can do this.” Nate kissed her cheek. “And if you need me, I’m just down the hall.”

  Nate patted her father’s shoulder briefly as he exited the room, closing the door behind him.

  Kendra inhaled, remembering her mother’s words. He loved you...wanted to be in your life as much as he could.

  It was the very opposite of what she’d believed her entire life, no matter how hard he’d tried to convince her otherwise.

  Kendra looked ahead, her eyes not meeting her father’s. “So how’ve you been, Dad?”

  Curtis Williams seemed to release a long-held breath as he sat beside her. “Physically, not too much to complain about. Mentally? It kills me that you and Dash aren’t part of my life. That I hardly get to see my grandson.”

  Her father’s voice vibrated with raw emotion. For the first time, she felt his pain. Understood that he’d been hurting, too.

  She placed her warm hand on his noticeably cooler one. He clutched it as if he’d been thrown a lifeline.

  It was the first time she’d let him hold her hand since she’d been old enough to cross the street alone.

  “I never meant to hurt you and Dash, but I couldn’t spend the rest of my life in a marriage that made your mother and me miserable. I know you don’t understand—”

  “As an adult, I get that, but as a kid...it was devastating.” Tears rolled down her cheeks and she wiped at them angrily. “It was hard enough knowing that you’d left us. But what hurt most is I couldn’t understand why you didn’t love me and Dash enough to stay, but you chose to stay with Maya and Cole and their mom.”

  “Don’t ever think I didn’t love you and your brother.” He squeezed her hand. “Walking away from my little boy and my baby girl was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”

  “Then why’d you do it?”

  Her father sighed. “Because I didn’t want you to grow up the way I did. With parents who resented the hell out of each other. In a house filled with anger and tension and constant arguing. I lived through that, and I didn’t want it for you and Dash.”

  “Why didn’t you ever tell us that? All this time, I kept thinking that there must’ve been something about me that drove you away.”

  “Kendra, I’m sorry I made you feel that way. I never meant to hurt you and Dash. I only wanted to protect you. Instead, I lost you both.”

  “It was hard watching you be the perfect father to Maya and Cole. All I could think about was all the times you weren’t there for me. It hurt too much to be there and pretend everything was okay. It was easier to hold onto the resentment. So I did. And when I pulled away from you, you didn’t put up a fight. That only made me angrier.”

  Her father shook his head. “I kept telling myself that you and your brother just needed a little space and then you’d come around. The truth is, I was hurt by your rejection, and it was easier not to deal with it. For that, I’m truly sorry. But know this...not a single day has gone by that I haven’t thought of you and your brother, hoping we could one day be a family again.”

  “I believe you, Dad.” She accepted the handkerchief her father offered and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I’m sorry I pushed you away.”

  He held her in his arms. “Sorry I put you and Dash in a position where you felt you had to choose between your mother and me. I should’ve handled it better.”


  “Me, too,” Kendra mumbled against her dad’s chest. She missed the smell of his cologne.

  He squeezed her shoulder. “I can’t make up for how I’ve hurt you in the past, but I’d like to build a relationship with you now. We’ve already lost so much time.”

  Kendra found comfort in her father’s embrace. One conversation wouldn’t instantly heal the deep wounds they’d inflicted on each other. But it was a start, and she had Nate to thank for it.

  Chapter 23

  Everyone had gone home and Kai was asleep in his bed. They’d had a wonderful night, celebrating with family and a handful of his teammates. But now it was nice to have the house all to themselves.

  “Thank you, Nate, for what you did today for me and my dad.” Kendra sat beside him on the sofa in the den. “We had a really good talk today, and we’re both determined to work on building our relationship.”

  “That’s great, Dray.” He squeezed her hand, genuinely happy for them both.

  “My dad said something tonight before he and Alita left. He said he was sorry that he was the reason I had trouble trusting people, and that he hoped I’d learn to trust the people in my life who love me. He was talking about you, wasn’t he? That’s why you arranged this.”

  “Yes.” Nate threaded his fingers through hers, his throat suddenly dry. He turned his body toward hers. “Kendra, I care about you...no...” He released a deep sigh and raised his eyes to hers, his pulse racing. “I love you, and I need you in my life.”

  She stared at him, wide-eyed. His declaration had taken her by surprise. “We’ve been through so much these past few weeks, Nate. Experiences like that can make you extremely emotional.”

  “I know.” His breathing was slow and measured. “And despite the crazy ups and downs, I haven’t been this happy in a long time. I want you and Kai in my life every day. That’s what makes me happy.”

  “I care about you, Nate. I want us to be a family, too. But you need to be sure about your feelings. That you truly want to be with me, and not just because I’m Kai’s mom.”

  “The way I feel about you... It isn’t just because we have a son together. It’s because you’re still that girl I fell in love with at the roller-skating rink all those years ago. The best friend I shared my feelings with when they were too raw to share with anyone else.”

  He pressed a hand to her cheek and smiled. “You are the only woman I’ve ever truly loved. The woman I want to wake up to every morning. The one I want to cook dinners with. The person I want to dance to old-school jams with until I’m eighty.”

  She laughed as she blinked back tears.

  Nate smiled. “Being with you these past few weeks, I’ve come to realize how incomplete my life is without you. I miss my best friend, the woman I have so much history with. The woman I want to build my future with.”

  “I love you, too, Nate, and I want to be with you, but I also want my career. I shouldn’t have to choose.”

  “No, you shouldn’t. I was wrong to ask you to do that before. I was so busy trying to give you the life I thought you deserved that I didn’t stop to listen to what you actually wanted. I won’t make that mistake again. I promise you, I’m going to support your career, just like you’ve always supported mine.”

  Kendra grinned, leaning into him. She pressed her mouth to his and gave him a slow, lingering kiss that made heat rise in his chest and his pulse race.

  “One last thing.” She locked her gaze with his. “Now that we’ve laid all our cards on the table, we wipe the slate clean. No more apologies, no more guilt. I love you and I trust you to be the man that Kai and I need. One day, I hope you’ll be able to trust me, too. That I won’t walk away from you or hurt you.”

  He cupped her cheek and kissed her softly on the lips. “I do trust you. I trust that if an issue ever rises again, that you’ll come and talk to me so we can work it out together.”

  “I promise.” She nodded, kissing him again.

  Nate held her tight, his heart overflowing with joy and contentment.

  His life was good.

  He had his family, a generous new contract and lucrative endorsement deals that would allow him to continue supporting the people and causes he cared about.

  Still, there was one prize that eluded Nate. He’d do everything in his power to help the Marauders win the big one and walk away champions.

  But nothing—not even a championship ring—could make him happier than he was right now.

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from

  PRINCE EVER AFTER by A.C. Arthur

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  Prince Ever After

  by A.C. Arthur

  Chapter 1

  The breeze cut across his face like a million tiny pinpricks. Beneath him the engine purred like a satisfied female as the wheels smoothly took on another sharp turn on a road where there was only one lane’s worth of space.

  He’d traveled this road so many times before and most times at the same rate of speed. His fingers hugged the steering wheel in an easy embrace, his back and body comfortable against the smooth leather seats of the silver-metallic Jaguar XJ220. Night had fallen over the mountains and cliffs of the island an hour ago, and he’d itched to get out of the confines of his everyday dress clothes and the formal dining room of the royal palace. It reminded him of his teenage years. Prince Roland Simon DeSaunters tossed his head back and laughed.

  He’d been such a hellion back then. But eleven years ago didn’t seem that long, surely not long enough for him to mature into the prince that everyone expected him to be. He’d had too long to practice being reckless, adventurous and fearless, to bottle all that spirit and simply sit still as a member of the royal family of Grand Serenity Island. That wasn’t Roland’s speed at all.

  His speed was fast. Fun. Borderline rowdy.

  With that thought, he took another curve, going downhill as he headed into town. The moment he’d been able to escape the clutches of another tension-filled family dinner, Roland had climbed into his car and driven to the small house hidden in the clefts of the mountainside that he adored. It had been his first major purchase the moment he’d been old enough to spend a part of his inherited fortune without adult supervision. The house was a high school graduation gift to himself, although he hadn’t actually bee
n able to live in it until his four years in the Royal Seaside Navy had been completed. His place was located on the southern tip of the island, where construction had not yet reached. Therefore, this part of his homeland was still flanked with dense forestation. Two of the island’s tallest mountains dubbed the Serene Mountains for their location thrust through the greenery.

  Roland loved it here. The scent of the tropical air rejuvenated him. The stretch of the empty road encouraged him. This was where Roland thrived and very few people knew about it. Of course, there were guards here, he was a prince, after all. But he did not keep a formal staff, preferring to do for himself when he was there. That was the reason he drove himself tonight. He had an important appointment to keep and so he pressed harder on the gas and made yet another sharp turn, smiling into the breeze as his car handled perfectly.

  Fifteen minutes later Roland pulled into a dark alley. He parked his car alongside a white stone dwelling. He got out and took the steps two at a time, until he reached a door that was painted a vibrant orange. Windows climbing up the front and back walls of the building had bright white borders and orange window boxes with flowers pouring out of each one.

  A slender woman answered after he knocked on the door once. She stood quietly as Roland stepped inside. The hallway was narrowand he walked slowly, anticipation bubbling in his blood. The tips of his fingers tingled and his mind emptied of anything and everything that could be a distraction.

  That included the attacks on his family that had resulted in the royal palace being on lockdown for the past six months. The palace had even stopped having guests, and any staff member who hadn’t been vetted, questioned and watched on a daily basis was dismissed.

  His father’s wedding would take place in just four weeks. His father’s fiancée was one royal pain in the ass. His older brother, Kris, was married and still worried about a few accounts at their family bank. His sister, Sam, was married and glowing with love—she’d begun turning over the majority of her responsibilities on the island to Landry, his sister-in-law. And, of course, Malayka, the pain-in-the-ass soon-to-be princess.