A Little Lost

by Burnett, R. S

  My jaw hits the floor.

  Kyle burst out laughing, bent over, hands on knees laughing.

  Mason looks sick.

  “I was never going to marry Chris” I frown at her “Even if I did, I never would have been unfaithful to him”

  “But you were! You both were!”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The night your dad died, you and Kyle were together. Don’t think that I actually believed you called him when you found out, you were together before that!”

  “Nothing has happened between me and Kyle since he’s been back” I look to Kyle for confirmation, he winces “What?”

  “I kissed you” he admits.

  “When?”

  “The night you hurt your hand. I spent the night with you, I kissed you just before you fell asleep. I woke up before you and when you came downstairs, you didn’t seem to remember anything that we had said or the kiss, so I dropped it”

  “But Chris had already broken up with me then” I point out to Amber.

  “Kyle wasn’t single though”

  “My father had just died. I’d just lost the only remaining family I had and he kissed me, in comfort, in sympathy. It’s not as if he had a full on affair with me and got me pregnant!”

  “He loves you!”

  “And I love him but we haven’t acted on it! You met someone and started having an affair with him, he also happened to be my boyfriend”

  “God, you are stupid” she laughs “I’ve known Chris for years, we met in college. We’ve been having an affair for four years. When Kyle left you we saw an opportunity and took it”

  “That’s why you were so adamant we come here?” Kyle asks.

  “Yeah, I knew that with her dad dying you’d be too distracted to notice that anything was going on between me and Chris”

  “You heartless bitch!” he shakes his head “What the hell did I ever see in you?”

  “It was easy honey” she smiles mockingly at him “I thought it was going to be harder than it was, what with you being so caught up in Louise and all but, it turns out all you needed was a lot of sex and often. She couldn’t be that memorable if that’s all it took”

  “You did it all for money?”

  “Of course” she shrugs

  “You know that makes you a hooker” Kyle points out.

  “What? It’s not as if you have any actually standards when it comes to women” she looks pointedly at me.

  “Mason, I think you’d better take her home before I forget that she’s pregnant and hurt her.” I manage to get out through gritted teeth.

  We all turn when my front door opens and when Chris walks in, I don’t know whether to laugh, scream or shoot him.

  He looks around at us all before zooming in on Amber “You told him”

  “Yeah, she told me” Kyle nods at him.

  Chris walks further into the room and stops in front of me. “Has she got to the part were we get married yet?” he asks conversationally.

  Before I even realize what I’m about to do, my hand is flying up and I’ve landed a punch on his jaw. His head turns to the side.

  “You bastard!” I hiss at him.

  “It’s okay, I expected that” he stretches his neck and shakes his head.

  I bring my knee up, connecting with the target perfectly. He doubles over clutching himself in both hands, I bring my knee up again, landing straight on his nose. “Did you expect that too asshole?” I ask as he lands on the floor. I lift my leg up to kick him while he’s down but Mason pulls me away from him.

  Luckily though, Kyle walks over and kicks him in the stomach three times. The only nose is Chris grunting in pain and then Amber screaming at us all to stop.

  “Kyle” Mason calls when Kyle bends down and picks Chris up by the scruff of his shirt. “Leave it son”

  Ignoring his father, Kyle punches Chris “That one is for what you did to Louise”

  “Which part? Hitting her, tying her up or the surprise I left on her?” Chris asks.

  “What’s he talking about?” Kyle asks me.

  I shiver, repulsed “He ... relieved himself on my shirt”

  Kyle head butts him “That’s for being a sick son of a bitch” he pushes him away.

  “Get out. Both of you” Mason demands.

  “Come on” Amber wraps herself around Chris’s arm.

  “Wait” I call out to stop them but turn to Kyle with a frown “How do you know if Chris is definitely the father?”

  “I always wore protection”

  “Then why did you ever think it could be your baby?”

  “He was too wrapped up in you to work it out” Amber smirks at me.

  “Do me a favor” I cock my head to the side “When you’ve had the baby, come find me”

  “What the fuck just happened?” I mutter.

  Mason joins me on the sofa and passes me a glass of wine.

  “We all got played” Kyle grumbles taking a sip of his beer.

  “I don’t even know what to say” I admit.

  “Just forget about them” Mason pats my knee “Don’t waste anymore time on them, we all fell for it. They used you both in the worst ways. You’re both better than them”

  “How are you?” I ask Kyle.

  “How am I?” he raises both eyebrows “How are you? Everything they did to you is a hell of a lot worse than anything they did to me. I can’t believe that they ...” he trails of shaking his head slowly.

  “I’m fine. Shocked as hell and a little nauseas that it was all planned but other than that, I’m just glad everything is out in the open and it’s all over”

  Cat, Tom and Travis turn up next.

  “What are you guys doing here?” I ask surprised.

  “You didn’t think we’d go without you do you?” Cat asks.

  “You should have gone” I smile pulling her into a hug.

  “What’s going on?” Tom asks.

  “You better have a seat” I gesture to the sofa.

  Mason and I get everyone drinks as Kyle explains everything to them. The reactions all vary from surprise to anger. Travis, already knowing as much as I did is surprised that it was all planned. Cat and Tom, not knowing anything are both furious. We all sit around the living room drinking and talking about anything and everything except Amber, Chris and their unborn child.

  Everyone leaves early evening, leaving me alone to process everything.

  If someone told me six months ago that someone I trusted was going to use my fathers illness to his advantage I would have laughed at them But, it just goes to show that you can’t trust everyone. People aren’t always who they seem to be.

  Fifteen: You broke my heart

  I’m in the rock pools with a glass of wine, relaxing for the first time since I was in the airport when the door opens.

  “Hey” Kyle says softly as he closes the door behind him.

  I smile up at him “Quite a day huh?”

  He chuckles “Yeah”

  “How you holding up?”

  “I’m worried about you” he admits taking his shoes off and sitting at the edge of the hot tub, his feet dangling in the water. “They used you more than me”

  “Kyle” I shake my head “You were going to marry her. You’ve just found out that you’re not going to be a father after all and she was going to marry you for your money”

  “I wasn’t going to marry her. I know that now. I was putting it off, but I wouldn’t have gone through with it. I think, in the back of my mind I always knew the baby wasn’t mine too”

  “Still. It’s a lot to take in”

  “True” he nods “But what they did to you was a lot worse. They used your fathers illness and death to their advantage. I’m sorry Lou, you can’t know how sorry I am.”

  “None of it was your fault Kyle”

  “He hurt you Lou, he hurt you because of me. They didn’t want you to tell me so they hurt you”

  “I’m okay now” I assure him.
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  “I shouldn’t have left you alone out there that night, if I had been there...”

  “Don’t. Don’t beat yourself up about it. It happened, there’s nothing we can do about it now. It’s over”

  “How can I not? You went out there looking for me and I hurt you, then I left you there on your own and he hurt you because of me. No matter how you look at it. It all comes back to them hurting you, everything they did to you was because of me”

  “No Kyle. Everything they did to both of us was because of them, it was for them”

  He doesn’t say anything further so I decide to change the subject “My dad says thank you by the way”

  “Huh?” he frowns at me.

  “I haven’t had a chance to tell you but, he wrote me a letter before he died and gave it to your dad. He wrote in there to thank who ever it was that brought me back to reality, that was you so, thank you, from my dad”

  “I wonder if he knew it would be me” he smiles.

  I snort “Yeah. He knew. That’s in the letter too”

  “He was a smart man”

  “Well, he was right about Chris”

  “It’s a shame he couldn’t have met Amber and warned me about her too”

  “Oh that reminds me. I’ve got something for you” I lift myself out of the water and wrap a towel around myself as I head into my bedroom.

  It takes a few minutes but I finally locate the envelope.

  “This was under the pillow, I found it when I moved in” I hand it to him.

  “What is it?” he asks turning it over.

  “I don’t know, that’s my dads writing though”

  I watch as he opens the letter and then reads it aloud shaking his head smiling.

  “Kyle, My favorite kind of fool. Thank you. I know it was you who saved my baby girl and for that I owe you the world. I can’t give you the world though

  but what I can give you is better. I can give you Louise, although you always had her anyway. But I give you my blessing. I also give you my company. My company wasn’t in the will for the sole reason that everything I own is left to Louise, except the company. When I first found out about my poor health, I hired a CEO. It’s up to you whether you keep him or decide to take over yourself. Enclosed in this letter you will find information about the company accounts and another set of bank records. They are for you. All I ask of you is that you take great care of both the company and my daughter. You’re destined for great things Kyle, your mother and father are lucky to have such a talented man for a son and I know they so proud of you.

  “I hope you live a long and healthy life. Never give up on what you love. I wish I could have spent more time with you. Paul”

  I smile and wipe the tears from my cheeks.

  “He’s giving me the company?” Kyle asks looking from the letter to me and back at the letter again.

  “So it would seem” I laugh.

  “But it’s worth what? Two million?”

  “Four actually, probably shouldn’t mention it to Amber” I joke.

  “He’s also giving me you” he grins.

  “I’m worth seven. You’re a rich man Mr. Carlton”

  “You’re not worth seven” he shakes his head and closes the distance between us “Your priceless ... Mrs. Banks -Carlton”

  “Nuh-uh” I shake my head, backing up a step.

  “Oh yes” he takes a step towards me.

  “No” I hit the wall.

  “Why not?” he stops in front of me.

  “I forgot what we were talking about” I lie looking up at him.

  “We’re talking about you being my wife”

  “You only just got un-engaged a few hours ago” I point out nervously.

  “I was never really engaged. I couldn’t be when I always only ever loved you”

  “I’m not going to be your rebound Kyle” I swallow.

  He plants his hands on the wall either side of my head, blocking me in.

  “You couldn’t be a rebound, there’s nothing to rebound from”

  “You loved her” I try

  “I love you” he counters

  “Umm..”

  “And you love me”

  “Ummm...”

  “It was always going to be us”

  “Ummm...”

  “We’re forever”

  “You left” I find my voice.

  “I came back”

  “You broke my heart” I remind him.

  “True but do you know what that means?”

  “What?”

  He leans his head down so his mouth is next to my ear “It means that only I know exactly how to put it back together again” he whispers.

  I whimper. “Don’t say it if you don’t mean it”

  “I won’t ever walk away from you again Louise, I can’t. I’m here to stay now, as long as you stay with me”

  “I might be able to do that” I whisper.

  “As my wife?”

  “Why don’t I get a big romantic proposal speech?” I wonder aloud.

  “Because, you know I love you. There’s no bullshit between us. No words can describe how much I want you, how much I need you. You already know because we’re meant to be together.

  “I could get down on one knee and tell you that your amazing and smart, beautiful and funny but I’m not going to. I could also tell you that loving you is like breathing, it’s just something I have to do to stay alive, but I’m not going to. I could tell you that I want to spend the rest of my life with you, I could also tell you that I want you to have my children, I could tell you that when your in my arms, I fell like I could take on the world. Or I could tell you that when we are together nothing else matters, that as long as I have you I will never need anything else.

  “I could explain how seeing your smile in the morning gives me the strength to get through the day, or how you make me laugh like no one else can, or that your so amazingly beautiful, sometimes it hurts to look at you.

  “I could also explain that leaving you was the hardest thing I ever had to do but I was your first, so I needed you to be with someone else so you could understand that together we are amazing and our love isn’t something that you can find with anyone.

  “And lastly, I could promise you that I will never leave your side again and that I will love you for as long as I live, but I’m not going to tell you any of that because words aren’t enough for a woman like you.

  “I don’t want to tell you that I’ll love you forever. Instead, Louise Banks, if you will marry me, I’ll dedicate the rest of my life to what I do want to do and that’s showing you. So I’ll ask you again. Will you be my wife?”

  “I guess I got a speech anyway” I whisper, swallowing back tears.

  “I guess I still haven’t got an answer” he nips my ear with his teeth.

  “You know I couldn’t ever say yes to anyone but you” I choke out.

  Kyle pulls his head back to look me in the eye “I love you Louise”

  “I love you Kyle”

  “Forever” he whispers before his lips finally meet mine.

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  BOOK TITLE

  About R.S Burnett

  I don’t really know what to say here .... I’m in my mid-twenties – I can pass for about 17 though, so I do tend to tell the little white lie about my age now and again, but most of the time I forget how old I am. I’d also love to go back to 21 and stay there.

  I’m British. I’m full of random quirks that make up my completely bizarre personality, I might be a touch crazy, but I accept it. I embrace it.

  I love to read and can spend a whole day working my way through two or three books in one sitting, only stopping for coffee. I love to read mostly N/A, some Romance Suspense and a little Erotic Romance. I hate series’ but I love reading them and I love a book that can make me cry and or laugh.

  If you have any questions or just want to say ‘Hey’ you can email me r.s.burnett@hotmail.com. Follow me on Twitter @RSBurnett1 and Goodrea
ds, or like my facebook page which is just R.S.Burnett.

  You can also find teasers and some of my random musing over at my blog that is listed on all of the above.

  I look forward to hearing from you but in the meantime, I have another book to write.

  Other Books By R.S Burnett

  Trust Me (Finding My Way #1)

  Bet Me (Finding My Way #2)

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