Withholding Secrets

by Diana Fisher

  “This? This is your home?” My jaw must have been on the floorboard of the truck because it made Kane chuckle. The lawn was kept up and there were a few bushes in front of the windows that had been trimmed and kept neat. “Why do you stay at the club where you work?”

  “You mean own.” Shrugging, he glanced into the back seat at the two kids that were now sleeping. “Hey. We’re here.”

  Talk about dumbfounded and shocked. My heart was beating so fast that I wasn’t sure if my body could even take it. When we were at the club, I hadn’t even realized that he was the one who owned the place. How could I? I didn’t really know him. I just figured that he worked there because he was always there on the weekends.

  Getting out, I watched him scoop Sky out of the back seat and nudge the truck door closed with his hip. Following him to the door with Jordan by my side, I watched him tower over a panel on the door. Maybe a security code to enter the place. Ugh. I would never know how to get in and out of the place without knowing the code. I would have to find a way to know it if he wouldn’t tell us. Just like the club, if we left the building, the silent alarm would trigger a notice to the police station.

  Yeah. Just great. We had no right to be there with him. He had a lot of money, that was obvious to me more now than before, and in no way anyone that I should be with. I thought it was strange that he hadn’t batted an eye at the large grocery bill. Seeing this, it hadn’t hurt him at all.

  We walked in, and the place was set up just like the club. Black furniture with white carpeting and a large flat screen displayed on the long wall that the leather sofas were facing. Two recliners were set back a way, but had plenty of room to view the screen. Black glass tables were around—end tables, coffee tables—and it was beautiful. The kitchen was open with black granite countertops, a long bar that separated it from the living room. The back was glass floor to ceiling walls also that gave a perfect view of the large back yard and the pool that was surrounded by concrete all around, and that was outlined by gardens filled with all kinds of colorful flowers.

  Kane put Sky down on the couch and tugged the black blanket off the back to cover her up. “It will be alarmed when you are here and when you are gone.”

  “Kane, we should really go…” A lump blocked my throat as I looked at his tight jaw and pinched brows. “The kids…”

  “I will take them to school and you to work, but I think that you should take tomorrow off.” His eyes shot down to my leg where the fence had first dug into my skin, the blood soaking through the jeans of my upper thigh. “Maybe I should take you to the hospital.”

  “No. It will be fine. I will bandage it up and it will be fine.”

  “And when was your last tetanus shot?” Motioning to the recliner, Kane watched Jordan take a seat and put up the footrest.

  “Last year when I got a furniture staple jammed into my thumb.” I rubbed my forehead as the throbbing in my thigh intensified a little more. I was having so much fun and using my leg way too much at the ice rink.

  But this place was way too much, and now knowing Kane, there was no way that I could ever have anything with him. If wind had gotten out about us staying here and me being with him, I would be the biggest gold-digger there was and the kids would be harassed even more. “We have to go home.”

  As I started to the front door, he groaned as he folded his arms across his chest. “Go ahead, and see what happens.”

  “Are you threatening me?” Swinging around, I glared at him. He had money, and there I was without a dime to my name and two teens. No wonder why he was hesitating on even staying with us. We were going to drain him dry just by helping me through this rough patch.

  “I’m not threatening you. I am trying to keep you and your kids safe. Why can’t you see that?”

  “Because this … this is too much. I’m not going to sit here and use you, Kane. I can’t. This…” I waved my hand at the kids on the couch. “This is my responsibility. Not yours. And you…” The tears warmed in my eyes, but I wasn’t going to let them go. I was so tired of crying and being such a mess, especially in front of the kids. “People get one good thing that happens to them in their whole lives. I already have mine. I have mine right there. I don’t get something else that’s good.”

  “Maybe you do. Maybe you deserve it for a change.” His arms dropped as he walked toward me. “I’ll get Sky to her room and you can get her in bed. Jordan will have his own room, and you need to get some sleep also.”

  “Kane, I can’t do this to you. I can’t. I really appreciate everything, and I mean everything, but this … invading your home, your life … I can’t do that to you.” Shrugging, I pulled away as he tried to touch me. The kiss was nice, being with him was comfortable, but knowing he led a very healthy lifestyle, I couldn’t drag him down with us. This was my doing, and I had to be the one who turned this around.

  “Fine. Fine. But if you think that I am letting you three go back to that house yet, you’re out of your pretty little mind. So try that one for a color in your special big crayon box.” His lips pressed tight together as he went back to the couch. “Jordan, follow me and I will show you where your room is.”

  “Where are the rooms?” I had to bite. All I saw was this big, fabulous bachelor-pad living room and a kitchen any woman would dream of having, but there wasn’t anything more to the place.

  “Two are downstairs and one is up here behind the living room.” Just like that, he had scooped Sky into his arms, letting her fall to his chest.

  Defeated once again by Coach Kane and his team of dominance, I followed to the hidden doorway that had looked like a pantry in the kitchen. Going down the winding staircase, I looked at Jordan as the impressed smile slithered across his face.

  The basement was broken into thirds. One bedroom was on one end and the other on the opposite end. Both were bigger than my living room at our house, and both were just as his room at the club was. Black and white. Simple and plain, yet very manly elegant. He put sky in the room that was closer to the stairs, and Jordan had taken the other. The middle was another living room with a few black recliners and a long, deep couch that looked as if it had been used and the ones upstairs looked to be just for decoration. A long black shelving was on the far wall that had folding doors that hid whatever was behind them.

  I followed into Sky’s room and slid her shoes off. Putting them by the door, I sucked in a deep breath as she woke up groggily. “Go ahead and crawl in bed.”

  “Where are we, Keri?” Her dark shadowed eyes looked back at me as she blinked, smiling at Kane. “I thought you left us.”

  “I’m still here.” He forced a smile as he pointed to the black door. “There’s your bathroom, and there is everything that you need in there. Your clothes are in the closet and your backpack is by the desk.”

  I looked up at him, feeling my heart yearning for him again. He was an amazing man to be that thoughtful of the kids. He had gotten their belongings from our house somehow and had his place all ready for us.

  “We are right upstairs. You can move around the house, but do not open any of the doors or windows. Everything is alarmed.” He scratched the back of his head and walked out to let me get Skyler comfortable in her new room, for the time being.

  Making sure that she was tucked in and comfortable, I checked in on Jordan lying on the bed in the other room. Leaning against the doorway, I stuck my hands into the pockets of my jeans wondering if Kane left already.

  “Is what you said true?” His dark eyes shifted over to me as the pain filled them.

  “What?” Leaning against the doorframe, I dropped my arms and folded them across my chest, checking out the rooms that Jordan and Sky both deserved to have. If I could do that for them, I would in a heartbeat. And to have Kane be the one to insist on bringing us into his home, maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea.

  “That people only get one good thing in their lives?”

  “That’s what my mom always told us.” My eyes shifted over to
the matching black door on the far wall. My guess was that was a bathroom, too. Both kids got their own bedrooms and bathrooms. And I thought I was happy with my place having more than three rooms to it and a nice kitchen. This was ten times better, and I had to let the green envy in just a tad. “And I got my good thing in my life the day you two came to the door. I wouldn’t trade that for anything, Jordan.”

  “Maybe we are just part of it.” Sitting up, he covered his yawn quickly. His glassy eyes came back to mine as he smiled. “Maybe Kane’s the other part. He really likes you a lot, Keri.”

  “You two are my life now. Sometimes you have to give up something else to keep what you really want.” Hearing the door close upstairs, my heart sank hard in my stomach. Last night, falling asleep in his arms had been so easy, so peaceful for a change, even though I had to break Sky out of my own house. “Get some rest. You have to go to school in the morning.”

  “You said that we were a team, Keri. You want us to be happy, and we want you to be happy. Coach Kane can be part of our team. You don’t have to become a nun because you have us. You need to live also.” Pointing to the door, he smiled as he waved his hand. “He’s never looked at anyone else like he has you. Don’t let him walk away.”

  “He already did.” Forcing my tears back, I turned and walked to the staircase. With each step, my heart fell more and more. Getting to the kitchen, I noticed that the windows were tinted more for better privacy. Now, to find the room where Kane was hiding me. Like that would be easy. All I noticed again was a living room that my whole house could fit into and a kitchen that was my complete dream. Making my way through the kitchen, I looked at the backyard and froze. Kane was sitting outside in a black expensive looking lawn chair and a drink in his hand. Noticing a door, I tapped on the glass afraid to open it. He said that the alarms were on, so I didn’t want to just walk out.

  He reached up without even looking back and waved his hand. Nudging the door open, I slipped out and walked over to him. The cool brisk air nipped at my shirt, and I swallowed hard. “The kids are pretty much asleep.”

  “I thought Sky was going to fall asleep at dinner.” Swirling the ice in the glass, he held it up, looking at the amber liquid inside of it. “I will see about getting your place set up with an alarm system, but you’re not going back until I do.”

  “Speaking of that, I thought you said that they were active.” Shoving my hands deep into the soft denim of my new jeans, I closed my eyes, taking in a deep breath of the fresh air and the mix of Kane clashing with the chlorine of the pool water.

  “They are. All except for that one.” He pointed at the door behind us. “Do you want to know the secret?”

  Nodding, I opened my eyes to see those emeralds that were full of hurt looking at me. He waved his hand over, drawing me closer. It was the killing light, but that bug just couldn’t stop from going into it.

  As I bent closer to him, his lips came close to my ear and his hand brushed my hip. Fires burst through my body as his breath warmed the sensitive skin of my neck. “The secret is…” he brushed my hip again, intensifying the heat. “…one that I’m not going to share with you.”

  My mouth hung open as I just stared at him.

  “I’m locking you and the kids down, Keri. I’m not letting you go yet until I know for damn sure the three of you are safe.” His eyes stayed locked on mine, the heat from him shot up again, and his hand clamped down on my hip, holding me in his forces.

  “Why? Why are you doing this to us?” The tears stung my eyes. Maybe I was wrong about Kane. Maybe he wasn’t a good person like I thought he was.

  “I’m doing this for you.” His lips brushed against my tingling skin, just enough for the heat to slam to the lower region of my body. Tingles gathered in my lower regions, and no matter how much I squeezed my thighs together, those fires were not dying out. “You will do anything to keep those kids safe, and I will do anything to keep the three of you safe. Welcome into my world, Keri.”

  “Kane,” his name came out huskily from my lips as I closed my eyes, resting my hands on his shoulders, “is this something that you really want? We are not the type who can handle someone else walking away from us.”

  “I’ve been trying to walk away, Keri. It hasn’t been possible since the day you started throwing your color crayons at me.” He put the glass down on the metal table next to him and cupped his hand over my other hip, drawing me to his lap. Taking position on his lap, the desire stung even more, lava was beginning to pool into my lady parts, and I needed him to put the fire out before I fully engulfed into flames.

  “Why do you keep throwing that in my face?”

  “Because it was the moment that you colored my life screwed up. It was that moment I was seeing just how damn sexy you were.” Nipping at my neck, I felt him stiffen under me as he shifted his weight a little more to give me more room and access to him. “It was the moment that I really saw why you had those kids and refused to let them go.”

  “Kane.” With him nipping and nuzzling that soft spot on my neck close to my ear, I pressed into him, feeling the harness that developed in his jeans. I never needed to have a man touch me in the worst way until now, and it was torture, pure torture. My body ached for him, burned for him in places that never burned before, and I needed him to do something before I just managed to fizzle out my own desire right there.

  “God, Keri. See what you have been doing to me? It was like this every time I thought about you, saw you, or even heard your name. You think that this is torture for you?” His hands dug into my back, pressing my chest hard against his. His mouth devoured my neck, biting, nipping, and licking me and bringing me to a fast urge of unbelievable pleasure. “I can’t take you out here.”

  “But the kids…”

  “They’re fine. They won’t hear anything.” In one swift move, he was on his feet with my legs wrapped tightly around his waist. The comfort of the house embraced us as he stepped in, closing the door behind him. Going straight to the box on the wall, he set the alarm again, and went through the living room, his eyes concentrating on where he was going, as if this place was all new to him, too. Just like the basement door, another door was hidden in the wall, looking like a fancy molding on the wall. Carrying me over to the king sized bed with the red comforter perfectly draped over it, he carefully laid me down. His eyes glistened in the soft lighting. “I need to get those pants off you, and your leg redressed.”

  “Kane, don’t worry about my leg.” Wrapping my arms around his neck, I pulled him closer to me, taking his mouth, needing the air from his lungs into mine. He obliged with a deep and hungry growl vibrating through his chest. “I need you, Kane.”

  “Leg first.” Pulling back, he let his head hang for a moment before his eyes lifted to mine. The desire coated through me so thickly, I wasn’t sure if I could survive another minute without him. “I need to fix your leg first.”

  Tears swelled in my eyes as he disappeared behind a black door just as the basement rooms had. The light came on and he returned just to gather me and carry me to the bathroom that was three times the size of the club’s living room. Placing me with my feet on the cold tiled white floor, his fingers slipped into the waist of my jeans as he worked the button open, his eyes glued to mine. Those greens that were darkening with raging desire by the second.

  “Nobody has ever gotten to me like you have.” His lips brushed my forehead allowing his eyes to finally breaking the hold. Leaning into him, I let the warmth of his hands roam over my hips, nudging the denim down, leaving the thin fabric of the cotton bikini panties. “Something so very simple and yet so sexy, Keri.”

  Bracing myself against his chest, my head swam, drunk on him. His body began to slide down as he inched the jeans down my legs, gently peeling the one leg away from the gash that leaked some more blood. I cringed a little, causing his hair to brush against my hot flesh and his lips pressing against the thumping flesh of my thigh. Resting my hands on his shoulders, I moaned a lit
tle reaching the edge of the orgasmic cliff; that moment where if he were to just touch me again, I would explode into a world of ecstasy. One I wasn’t sure I’d ever experienced before.

  I had never been like that; never that responsive over something so simple as to have him help me remove the denim from the cut, press an antiseptic cloth to the gash in my leg, or even having the ounce of eye contact as he did with me. It was all Kane. It was all that sexy god with the back hair and those emeralds that glistened with the fiercest hunger. No wonder why all the women dropped themselves at the blink of his eye. I could see why now. He was a sexual magician with the way he was able to do anything and turn it into an instant orgasm.

  “You are so beautiful, Keri.” His voice deepened into a low husk as he cupped the backs of my thighs.

  “Kane.” Automatically, my head tipped backward, his lips brushing against my skin around the gash.

  “Are you always this responsive?” His eyes came up, meeting mine, as I raked my fingers through his hair and drew my bottom lip through my teeth in hopes of keeping me from begging for attention.

  I shook my head, biting my lip hard. This had to be a dream. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. This wasn’t the way that sex was. These feelings were only in books and movies; nothing that ever happened in real life. I knew that from experience. I would wake up in the morning disappointed, but I would put my clothes on and head on into work, not giving this another thought. That was how it had always been in the past. Nothing “electrifying”. I was a young woman with two teenagers now. I was just fantasizing.

  “Up you go.” His hands cupped me, lifting me to the granite counter that housed a white porcelain sink with a brass fixture. Twisting me to the side, he draped my leg over the sink and grabbed the brown bottle of peroxide. “This is going to sting, but we have to clean it.”