by Love,Amy
“Ellen’s expecting” he said. “It’s… it’s…”
Touching his arm, she smiled into his eyes. “It’s what you always wanted,” Angeline said.
Jeremy nodded, and Angeline imagined the two of them laying put the plans for their own nursery. Ellen would want to, she would have to know. Pink or blue. No yellows for them.
And Angeline had to ask.
“Are you having a---?”
“Little girl,” Jeremy said. “We’re calling her Mary.”
Mary. Old-fashioned and perfect. Angeline liked the sound of it, and she moved to hug Jeremy close when he suddenly held her back and came to a fitful rest in her eyes.
“But it’s no good,” Jeremy said.
Shaking her head, Angeline thought of Theo and could not begin to comprehend how happy news could bring such tension to Jeremy’s shoulders.
“Jeremy, why?”
“Because my brother wants you!” Jeremy put his hands to his face and sputtered through his fingers, his eyes never meeting hers. “It’s bringing it all back for him,” Jeremy said. “He wants his son. That’s what he says. And… and he wants you.”
Time had failed to erase her need, and Angeline was about to tell Jeremy that his brother could come and find her when Jeremy pressed his fingers into her arms.
“And if he finds you, if he runs off with you, then it’s my kid who’s in danger. Angeline?”
He brought her into his arms, and his body went limp as she held him.
“Please,” he begged. “Please.”
Angeline owed him that much and more. Patting his cheek with a stiff hand, she swore to send Kane off if he happened upon her. It would leave him a shell, but she vowed to honor the promise to keep the unborn Mary safe.
“I’ll do it,” she said. “No worries.”
Jeremy took off with a final kiss to her hair, and as Angeline unfolded her hands before her face, she thought of nothing but Theo and turned back to the house.
CHAPTER THIRTY
After Theo’s bath and once her dad was snoring, Angeline sat before the small window. By now, Jeremy had to be back at Ellen’s side, and she pictured him smiling as he ran his hand across his wife’s belly.
But even as the thought made her happy, Angeline started to weep at the idea of being without an embrace. She missed him. She was no stranger to being without him, and now it felt like there was no chance of him ever working his way back. Jeremy claimed that he was alive. Barely.
The thought of him like that made her shudder, and she went into the woods. Theo was sleeping behind her, and Angeline thought of taking him farther away when he finally woke. Kane was not coming back; so, there was no point in staying where he would never find them.
Reaching the edge of the forest, Angeline looked down the edge of the cliff. The ripples below seemed so peaceful, and she was tempted to fall into the stream and let the river swallow her whole.
No. She still had to be there for Theo, and they would leave for parts unknown at first light.
Angeline saw the tiny house poking through the trees, and as she quickened her step, Angeline felt her body wrestled into grass.
“Let me go! Let me…” Her speech was stilled, as her back came to rest against the soft waves of grass. Angeline struggled as her mind filled with the memory of Noel taking her. Was he back? Had Jeremy only come by in an attempt to save her from him?
“Angel?”
Catching her breath, Angeline forced her eyes to focus. At first she saw nothing but the moonlight peering through the leaves. It had to be dream. She had slept fitfully and longed for nothing but him for so long, and she always got through it alone. This would be no different. Just another dream that would never…
“Angel.”
The sound of his voice brought her eyes to attention. She had to blink hard to be sure, but when she was certain that the only man that she could ever love was on her, over her, she gasped. Shooting up, she touched his neck, and when she was sure that he was real, she melted into him and kissed his face.
“Kane,” she muttered around his lips. When he felt real enough to claim, Angeline seized the hope. His tongue was moist, and at the feel of his lips swirling around hers, she deepened their kiss and rested her hands to his back. Holding him again made her happy, and when their eyes met, she thought of nothing but his hands working their way up her skirt, touching her soft mound…
But she had to stop.
“Can you…. can you let me up?”
Kane obeyed, and when she stood before him, her eyes ran over his body. He looked sadder than she had remembered, but she was still tempted to fall back into him. It had been so long, and she had missed him so much. Every day without him was a kind of torment, and now that he was back, she wanted… she wanted…
Pushing him to the ground, her hands moved to his belt, and she pulled his zipper down. As soon as his cock hit the air, she moved to mount it. But as the tip started to grind into her body, as she smiled at the memory—now real—of how he felt, she sadly pushed away from him.
“No. No don’t go.”
Kane reached for her departing form. She was nearly away from him, moving back to her boy and her new life when Kane’s arms surrounded her and pulled her back to him.
“Angel? Just… just stay. Please stay.”
The feel of him so close was too much to fight. Sinking towards him again, she started to tug at his shirt. Under the pale moonlight, his taut chest came in to view, and she collapsed against him, her hair spilling across his skin. Moaning at the feel of his heaving flesh, she found herself hypnotized by the beating of his heart pulsing against her cheek. Parting her lips, she kissed him softly. Angeline drank him in. Two years, five years, it didn’t matter. Each time he returned to her, it was as if he never left, and she’d have to be insane to let him go again.
“Angel,” he said in a ragged whisper. “Look at me. Now.”
Obeying his quiet order, she reluctantly raised her head. For several seconds, Kane did nothing but look into her eyes. Her hands lingered on his chest, and when he returned his touch to her face, she twisted into his firm palm, her eyes starting to flutter.
“Look at me,” he said.
Her eyes snapped open, and her breathing intensified when he began stroking her face in earnest as his free hand played about her quivering thigh. Moving towards her trembling pussy, he probed her waiting mound. She was wet, nearly soaking as he caressed her cunt. Gripping her thighs, he drove his cock into her aching body.
When he slipped inside her, Angeline’s hands surrounded his hips, and she pressed deeper. As his cock expanded, she twisted around his firm flesh. Savoring the feel of him claiming her, she rested around him. If he ordered it, she could stay like this forever, live on his hardness as it consumed her.
But there was her son and her promise to Jeremy.
“No,” she murmured. “I can’t, I…”
Turning her to her back, Kane eased her body into the soft grass, and he moaned as he reached under her blouse. Finding her breasts, he cradled her there and lowered his head to her shoulder.
“I won’t force you,” he whispered into her hair. “That’s not me.”
Nodding into him, she wondered what it must have been like for him. Two years as Noel’s slave, probably having to listen to his friend as he happily recalled the time when he had robbed her of her choices. How had he fought the urge to kill him?
“I know that,” she said. “I know you.”
“Then let me have you,” Kane said. “Tell me you want this. Tell me you need it.”
Angeline couldn’t speak, but as she blinked her eyes and relaxed into the earth, he took her at her unspoken word.
“Angel…”
Falling into her, his cock moved with desperate thrusts. Staying in his eyes, not wanting to lose any part of him, her teeth touched her tongue as he accelerated his pursuit. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she arched her body closer to him. Her furious kisses bathed his c
hest, and his broad arms encircled her waist. He was not letting her go, and Angeline did not want to escape.
“Now,” she moaned. “Let it be now. I’ve missed you so much. I…”
Keeping his cock close, she met his pulsing piece and stretched her body to take every inch of him. His cock swirled inside her, and when he released his desire, she tossed her head back and moaned into the night. Slapping her hand to her mouth, she shuddered. At that instant, Kane moved back to her breasts and buried his head in her soft folds.
“Don’t be afraid,” Kane said. “I’m here. I’ve got you.”
Her thirst for him slaked, Angeline fell sleepily to him. He spooned her quivering body, as they lay on the grass. Removing his coat, he brought it to rest around her, and he pulled her face closer to his.
“I couldn’t stay away,” he said.
“I know. I… keep dreaming about you. Nothing makes you go away.”
Kissing her tenderly, he folded her into his arms and brushed a fallen curl from her shining eyes. “And I don’t want to, Angel,” Kane said. “I want this. More of this.”
Their mouths met again, and she wondered if Jeremy had it wrong. Maybe the danger had passed, and he was back for good. In the dreams that would not stop, she pictured him lifting her into his arms and telling her that he was free. That they never had to think about his club ever again.
“And I was careful. Noel doesn’t know where I am,” he whispered. His words told her that her rapist was still a threat, and her mind wandered to the other dreams, the darker dreams. Kane gritting his teeth as he tried not to scream; she imagined him beaten on a daily, an hourly basis when his gaze even suggested defiance. On those nights, she would shoot awake screaming out for him, and it the worst moments, he was already dead, lost to her forever.
But not now.
Finding her way back from his conquest, she fondled his face softly, questions forcing their way from her throat.
“Has he hurt you?” she asked.
“Nothing I can’t handle.”
“But what happened?”
“We’re not talking about that,” he insisted.
The look in his eyes told her that he had endured something unspeakable at the hands of his Blood Brother. If she ever got the chance, she would kill Noel—and not just to avenge her violation. He had harmed every man that she ever loved, and Theo’s face suddenly blazed through her mind.
“Oh no!”
Pulling away from him, Angeline lost her belief in his claim of stealth. Buttoning her blouse, she started to run back to the house.
“Angel! Angel, wait!”
Even as the feel of Kane’s body still buzzed around her cunt, her thoughts turned to her son. What if Noel was already there, ready to do something unspeakable to her child? If Kane couldn’t beat him, Noel would make good on his horrible promise from so long ago. She couldn’t help but think that he would sell Theo and her. She knew she had to get back.
“Hold up!” Clasping her arm, Kane turned her back to his side, and he took her face in his hands. “You don’t have to run!” he screamed. “I have it all—”
“But he won’t let you go!” Angeline argued. “He’s probably after you now. You shouldn’t have come back. You—”
“Don’t be afraid of this.”
Crushing his lips to hers, she started to melt into his kiss, but thoughts of Theo forced her away from his lips, and she furiously shook her head. “But Theo,” she said. “If he’s hurt—”
“Not happening,” Kane said. “I’m here for you. And for my boy.”
Kane’s face fell, and Angeline’s heart nearly stopped when she saw him stricken. She had only been without him and that was torture enough. However, Kane was denied both of them, and she remembered Jeremy’s words, He wants his son.
Could she really deny him that? He had sacrificed so much, suffered things that he wasn’t strong enough to share. Maybe it had taken him two years to plan this escape, and maybe it was a solid plan.
She had to give him the chance. She owed him that much. If not more.
“Kane?”
Taking his hand, she swallowed hard and led him back to the house. As they stood at the foot of the steps leading up to the porch, she took hold of his arm and smiled up at him.
“He is alright,” she started. “I’ve taken good care of him.”
“I never thought anything else.” His words tugged at her heart. As she led him towards the door, her hand came to rest on the knob, and she took a deep breath.
“Time you got a chance to see him again. It’s… it’s been too long.”
They stepped into the dark house, hope leading the way, even as danger rustled through the trees at their backs.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
The road back to her was long and winding—and laced with pain that was impossible to forget.
To hear Noel tell it, they had the supreme hook-up. Dr. Lillian Palmer would siphon off the excess from her revolving door of pharmaceutical reps and see to it that the pills made their way into Noel’s waiting hands. However, the good doctor was either too bold or too desperate, and she was willing to take things a step further.
Along with the pills, she promised to give the Blood Brothers signed prescription slips. All Noel or any of the other boys had to do was fill in the lucky recipient’s name. This gave Noel’s entire scheme an air of legitimacy. The doc was the one taking the greatest risk should the bottom fall out, and Kane quietly vowed that he would try to help her if he got the chance to talk to her alone.
But for a long time, Noel did not allow that.
“Why the long face, kid?”
Whenever Noel spoke to him now, his voice came out through a triumphant sneer. Kane longed to curl his fists and pound his smug face into a leaking pulp of blood and pus. Angeline and Theo were gone for nearly three months when Noel, high off his own stash and the power that he now wielded without impunity, played at being his friend again.
“Kane, you think I was harsh with you, right?”
That word fit; but, inhumane was better. Kane’s lip quivered, as Noel slipped from behind his desk and shook his shoulder like the protective big brother that he had always wanted—but that was never going to be Noel White.
“Yeah,” Noel continued, as he took a pull from his beer and lit another cigarette. “Big dick, huh?”
Kane offered no objection.
“But that piece of ass had you all messed up,” Noel said. “She got you busted, and then she expected you to play house like nothing had happened.”
As much as it hurt to think of Angeline, missing Theo was sometimes worse. Little guy was supposed to be his chance to right the wrongs of his own father, and now the kid would grow up alone. Sure, Angeline would do her thing, and she would probably do it well. He could almost hear her telling the kid that his daddy had to go away to keep them safe. However, what comfort would that really be when Theo saw other boys with their dads? Kane had failed to give Theo the one thing that he needed most—to just stick around.
“One day you’ll thank me,” Noel said.
That day would never come, and Kane stared his imaginary mentor down with cold eyes. Noel’s cigarette was hanging from his lips, and Kane wanted to snatch it and shove the flaming butt into his scar and hear him scream. However, at the last second, he stopped. He had to toe the line and keep his head down.
Noel could still find Angeline, and Kane would sooner die than see her back in his rough arms.
“I gotta tap the keg,” Kane said, and he left the office with his shoulders slumped and his heart heavy.
Ben had to know that Kane was down, as he sat in a corner and nursed the same beer for over an hour. Sitting at his side, Kane inched away and saw Ben pull a fresh smoke out of his crumpled pack.
“Want to bum one?” Ben asked.
Taking it without a word, he pressed the smooth paper pressed between his fingers. Then, Ben lit a match on the heel of his boot so Kane could take a long, slow dra
g. “Better, man?” Ben asked, as Kane exhaled.
“Good as I can be, I guess,” Kane muttered in a flat tone. Ben started to slap his back, but he held back and just cracked his knuckles.
“You’ll be okay,” Ben said. “And I got just the thing for all that ails you.”
Whistling and snapping his fingers, Ben summoned the redhead with the sunken cheeks to their side. Since Noel got her hooked on the new stuff, the good stuff, she seemed shakier than usual, and Ben steadied her wavering stance with a muscled arm around her tiny waist.