by K. M. Scott
I pulled her into my hold and kissed her gently, loving the feel of her lips on mine. “Nothing bad is going to happen. We’re going to have a healthy baby, and since I’m not being the world’s biggest jackass and causing you all that stress, you two are going to be fine. He’ll get here right when he’s supposed to, and then we’ll have the perfect family and I won’t be overruled by females all the time.”
Abbi smiled and rolled her eyes. “So you think it’s a boy this time? What if it’s another girl? What are you going to do then?”
“Be overruled even more, I guess. I think we’d have to try again, though, because a man likes to have some of his own kind around.”
“Kane, let’s get through this one and then we can talk about trying again and your own kind.”
“It’s a deal. Now let’s forget all this talk of kids so I can make love to my beautiful wife.”
Abbi pushed her towel from her body and sat on top of me. “So that’s how it’s going to be, huh?”
Rolling her over onto her back, I kissed her and smiled. “That’s how it’s going to be.”
We made love and even though we’d known each other for years, she still thrilled and enchanted me, just as she had that first night I saw her standing in Cash’s office at Club X. Later, as we lay in each other’s arms, I twirled her hair around my finger and smiled at the memory of that first night. I’d barely been able to stand in Cash’s office with her so close, my body more alive than it had been in ages the moment she sat down.
“Kane, did you hear me?”
Shaken from my memory, I looked down at her staring at me. “No. Sorry. What did you say?”
Chuckling, she said, “Nothing important. Where were you?”
“I was just thinking about the night we met.”
“In my interview when you barely spoke to me and didn’t even want to shake my hand?” she asked with a smile.
“You know I liked you. I just didn’t think you needed someone like me in your life.”
Abbi lightly ran her fingertips over my cheekbones and looked deep into my eyes. “I would go through hell as long as you were by my side, Kane. No matter what happens, as long as we’re together we’ll be fine.”
“Angel, I’ll always be by your side. You’ve done what no one else has ever been able to do.”
“What’s that?”
“You helped me silence my demons.”
Shaking her head, she said, “No. I just showed you there was more to you than just them.”
And for that, I loved her more than she could ever know.
READ ON FOR CLUB X EXTRAS, INCLUDING CLUB X TRIVIA, BONUS SCENES EXCLUSIVE TO THE EBOOK AND PAPERBACK, AND A LETTER TO READERS!
LETTER TO READERS
As you’ve have heard me say before, I write the stories my characters tell me, and for now, Cassian, Stefan, and Kane aren’t saying much. That doesn’t mean they’ll always be this silent, though, but happiness does that to people. So for now, this is all there is of the Club X series. However, I’m not ruling anything out for the future of the characters’ stories. Like with my Heart of Stone series, there may be other short stories and novellas to be told. At the very least, I hope Kane and Abbi will tell me the story of their second child’s birth.
And the stories of the other two children of Cassian March III haven’t been told. Well, that’s not entirely true. One of his illegitimate children—the only daughter—has been introduced to readers.
What about those other two children of Cassian March III? Those of you who’ve read the SILK series have already met his only daughter. Sienna Rollins, Kristina’s best friend. As I was writing Possession, she popped up one day to introduce herself. Imagine my surprise when she announced that not only was she one of the children Alexandria had alluded to in Surrender but her friend Kristina had an incredible story of her own, one that became SILK.
Sienna was a secondary character in that story, but she’s been talking to me ever since, so don’t be surprised if she gets her own book or series sometime soon. She’s got that March spirit to her and a great story of her own.
That only leaves the last child of Cassian March III. The youngest of the boys, his name is Sebastian. I first heard of him from Kane as I was finishing writing this book. Very much a March, he’s tall with dark hair and blue eyes just like his father’s. Until recently, Sebastian had little to say to me, but he’s begun to tell me about himself and his life and I can say he’s a wild one. If he continues talking to me, look for his story in the future too.
For those curious, the order from oldest to youngest is Cassian, Kane, Stefan, Sienna, and Sebastian.
It’s been so incredible writing the Club X series. After the phenomenal success of the Heart of Stone series, I had a choice. I could continue to hope that Tristan and Nina would have more of their story to tell, or I could listen to the Club X guys tell their stories. As much as some readers wished I chose the former, I chose Cassian, Stefan, and Kane, and I’ve never regretted it.
So thank you to all of you who fell in love with these brothers who are so different from one another. The cool billionaire, the consummate player, and the tortured bad boy—each reader has a favorite. I’ll keep who I love the most a secret for now, but the truth is that I love all three of these guys and I’ll miss writing their stories. Thank you to them for spending time with me for nearly a year and a half and thank you to all the readers.
Love,
K.M. ♥
CLUB X TRIVIA
• The three brothers’ personalities are loosely based on the three main gods in Greek mythology: Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, but the roles are reversed. Cassian would be Zeus, and although he’s the god of the heavens, Cassian rules the lower level. Poseidon would be Stefan, the middle god. And Hades would be Kane, the god of the underworld even though it’s the upper levels at Club X he rules.
• Cassian’s name means hollow, which fits with his life before Olivia, and is pronounced CASH-in.
• Stefan is one of my favorite names, and in fact, I have another character in a paranormal book unpublished as of yet (a dragon shifter) named Stefan. Stefan’s name is pronounced STEF-in.
• Kane is the hardest character I’ve ever written. I’ve never cried so much writing a character as I did him. I’d stop writing at the end of the day drained, and I don’t think I’ve ever consumed as much alcohol as I did writing Possession.
• Kane and Abbi are variations on the biblical story of Cain and Abel.
• Surrender, Stefan and Shay’s story, was influenced by the film Dangerous Liaisons.
• Possession, Kane and Abbi’s story, was influenced by the fairytale Beauty and the Beast.
• The Club X series sits at the middle of a triad of series that intersect. Tristan Stone, the hero from the Heart of Stone series, was once part owner of Club X and the brothers and the club are first mentioned in the Heart of Stone novella, Ever After. And Sienna Rollins, Kristina Richards’ best friend from SILK, is the only daughter of Cassian March III.
• Heart of Stone → Club X → SILK
• The restaurant Cassian and Kane run at the end of Satisfaction is called CK after the first letter in each of their names. It’s also the restaurant Kane and Abbi went to on their first date once they got back together. Of course, once the two brothers bought it, the ordinary steakhouse became something far different.
• Annalea’s name is pronounced ANNA-lee.
• Kane and Abbi have picked out names for the child she’s carrying: Alexander and Bella. He’s secretly (or not so secretly) hoping for a boy, but Abbi told me she’d like another little girl. They’ve decided not to know the sex of the baby until he or she is born. I’m hoping that will be a story they tell me someday.
• Kane’s mother’s name was Elise. It isn’t mentioned until Satisfaction, however. He just usually thinks of her as his mother, and Alexandria thinks of her as that woman.
• The male on the cover of Satisfaction is meant to repre
sent Kane. That’s why he’s shown with the dragon tattoo.
• Kane got his dragon tattoo after Annalea’s birth and after he began seeing someone to deal with his problems.
• The foot in the cake for the first birthday tradition in the March family is a tradition from my family. There are pictures out there of me with my foot in my first birthday cake, and when I had my children, both of them got to experience the foot in the cake tradition for their first birthdays. I love this tradition and hope they continue it with their children.
• When Shay tells Kane he’s a tortured soul like Heathcliff, she’s making a reference to the character Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, one of my two favorite gothic novels (the other is Jane Eyre).
• Simone, one of Kane’s dancers in the fantasy level of Club X, is based on a real person. A bartender I knew, she helped me with details about how Shay would behave behind the bar, and to thank her, I named a character after her.
• Kane has no middle name. His mother decided all he needed was the name Kane, so there is no middle name.
• The brothers’ birthdays are: Cassian—January 17, Kane—July 19, Stefan—November 3. For those who follow astrology, that makes Cassian a Capricorn, Kane a Cancer, and Stefan a Scorpio.
• Stefan’s book, Surrender, was released on his birthday.
• The three heroines’ birthdays are: Olivia—October 4, Shay—March 23, and Abbi—April 30. For those who follow astrology, that makes Olivia a Libra, Shay an Aries, and Abbi a Taurus.
• Cassian March III died of lung cancer.
• Abbi’s kitten, Angel, is a Siamese cat.
• The three brothers’ word tattoos symbolize what they believe about themselves. Cassian’s says LUCK HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. Stefan’s says ALL GOOD THINGS ARE WILD AND FREE. And Kane’s says DO NO HARM.
• Piercings rundown—Cassian has both nipples pierced, Stefan has one nipple pierced and his tongue pierced, and Kane has both nipples pierced and his cock (two piercings there). He also had his lip pierced when he was a teenager, but doesn’t wear it anymore.
• Of the three heroines, Olivia is the oldest, followed by Shay, and then Abbi, who is only in her early twenties when she meets Kane. Also, both Olivia and Shay have college degrees, while Abbi only has a high school degree.
• Kane is seven years older than Abbi.
• If you sensed tension between Abbi and Shay, you weren’t mistaken. They never appear in a scene together once Kane tells Abbi about how Shay helped him see the truth of what he was doing because Abbi doesn’t like her. Even when the family is all together, they stay apart. Kane, however, is still friendly with Shay, but never to the extent that it upsets his wife. For her part, Shay doesn’t dislike Abbi and hopes someday they can be closer.
• Stefan’s new club is in the same building where Club X was. Many of the former Club X employees work for him, but not Mika or Lola.
• Cassian March V’s birthday is August 28.
• While I tend not to associate songs with books or characters as much as other authors do, there are songs that I think of for the three main heroes in the Club X series. For Cassian, it’s All of Me by John Legend. For Stefan, it’s Run It by Chris Brown. For Kane, it’s Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin.
• Stefan is Annalea’s godfather, and Gemma is her godmother. Kane and Abbi plan on asking Cassian and Olivia to be the new baby’s godparents.
BONUS SCENES FROM CLUB X
Because I’m an author, I can talk about my writing until I’m blue in the face, but I’ve chosen not to do that here and instead just briefly set the stage so readers have some frame of reference as to what’s going on just before they read each scene. Some of these scenes were cut because they didn’t fit well in the final edit, and some never made it into the manuscript even before edits. But they’re some of the scenes I think readers will like and find interesting. Enjoy!
Abbi, Kane, and Annalea in her nursery a few days after coming home from the hospital (Abbi POV)
Exhausted, I opened my eyes and willed myself to get out of bed, sure Annalea needed me for a middle of the night feeding. I loved having her home with us, but my body hadn’t caught up to my heart and it wished I’d just sleep through her cries at three a.m. Kane’s side of our bed sat empty, and for a moment I tried to figure out where he might be, but I remembered him saying something about Cash wanting to meet with him after the restaurant closed that night.
I plodded down the hall to Annalea’s nursery, barely able to keep my eyes open but knowing that my little girl needed me more than I needed sleep. She’d last fed right before I climbed into bed at eleven, so by now she’d be good and hungry. At just over five pounds, she ate like a baby twice her weight, but that was my little girl.
Strong as a horse and with a will to live like the doctors had never seen before.
As I moved toward her room, I saw her light on and wondered if I’d forgotten to turn it off hours before. Ever since she’d come home from the hospital, I’d lost track of many everyday things as the reality of being a new mom finally settled into my brain. Why just the day before I’d put an entire load of laundry into the washing machine and walked away without turning it on, only realizing the clothes were sitting there still dirty when I returned two hours later.
No matter. I’d just turn her light off after I finished this feeding. And maybe someday I wouldn’t be so scatterbrained. Yeah, when she was thirty.
I stepped into her room and said in my best cheery middle of the night voice, “I’m here, Annalea. Time to—”
My feet stopped dead in front of her dresser, and my eyes flew open at the sight in front of me. There in the rocking chair we used to sit with Annalea when we fed her sat Kane still in his black dress pants, black dress shirt, and grey tie he wore to the restaurant with her cuddled up on his chest, the two of them sound asleep.
I couldn’t help but smile even as tears of joy welled in my eyes. His hands cradled her little bottom and the back of her head, and as she slept a tiny smile made her little pink mouth turn up at the corners. I stood there just watching the two of them so at home with one another. Kane with his jet black hair and Annalea with her pale blond hair, they looked so different, but even though she resembled me almost entirely, I saw her father in her face.
No matter who she looked like, she was truly her daddy’s little girl.
Silently, I sat down on the pale pink rug and watched them just be with each other. Kane had taken to fatherhood almost instinctively. From the first moment he saw her, he was her father in every way. The nurses loved to tell me about his visits with her and how he’d hold her just as he did now, her chubby cheek pressed against his heart as he sat in one of the NICU rocking chairs and talked to her about how life would be when she finally came home.
Those days had been hard, but never once was he less than the man Annalea needed him to be. Or the man I needed him to be either.
And now that man sat in a lilac colored room full of pink and purple butterflies and held our daughter like she was the most precious gift he’d ever been given.
As I sat gazing up at the beautiful scene in front of me, he opened his eyes and smiled. “She was crying when I got home, so I fed her and I guess I fell asleep.”
“I must have been dead to the world. What time did you get home?”
“One, I think,” he answered as he sat up straighter in the rocking chair. “What time is it now?”
“Three. I didn’t think that chair was comfortable enough for a two hour nap,” I joked.
Looking down at Annalea on his chest, he kissed the top of her head and whispered, “I could sit here forever.”
“I know what you mean. Even though I hate getting up at this time of night, I never want to leave once I get into this room.”
Annalea opened her mouth wide to yawn, so Kane placed her in crib. Tucking her under her white blanket, he stared down at her as I stood to join him. She was the most perfect thing I’d ever seen in my
entire life, and we’d created that angel.
Kane and me.
He took my hand in his and said, “I can’t stop looking at her. She’s just so perfect, isn’t she?”
“She is in every way, and now she’s home with us finally. We did good.”
Turning to look down at me, he smiled and gently kissed me. “We did.”
Even though he’d spent his life believing he was born to hurt and until him I’d believed I’d never find the love I so wanted, somehow the two of us had found a way to bring a beautiful little girl into the world.
I leaned against his side, and he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. Looking up at him, I teased, “You know, someday she’s going to go out with boys and you’re going to have to deal with that.”
Kane furrowed his brow and shook his head. “No. No boys. I know what they do.”
“Well, as long as we got that settled. So Annalea will become a nun. Good to know.”
“I like that idea.”
“You can’t think that she’s not going to like boys, Kane. She’s going to want someone just like her daddy.”
A look of fear crossed his face and he shook his head more violently. “That seals it. Definitely no boys, especially no boys like me.”
I snuggled up against his side and giggled as I looked in at our daughter. “I think she’d be lucky to find someone like her father. I know I was.”
Kane kissed the top of my head and whispered, “Not as lucky as he was to find you.”
I leaned in and kissed Annalea goodnight. “May you be as happy as we are, pumpkin. Good night, Annalea.”
Stefan at Club X (Stefan POV)
Parking the car across the street from the club, I looked at the building where I’d had some of the best times of my life. My shoulders sagging from missing those nights, I sighed. I’d spent most of my twenties in that building, feeling like a kid in a candy store without an adult to stop him from sampling every sweet thing within reach.