“Oh, Keane,” she gasped out. It was like coming home. Not the house in Roxbury. Dark and cold to keep the electricity bill down and empty because her dad was always at work. But the home she’d always wished for. Bright, and happy, and filled with love.
“Keane, I missed you. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she panted as he began pumping into her.
He said nothing. Just held her hips in a tight vice grip, as he pulled her up and down on his dick. The friction of the movement felt unbelievable and she reveled in the euphoria of being with him like this again.
It had been a nearly a year for her, since before they broke up. And it must have been a while for him, too, because he grunted and spilled inside her just as she was getting revved up.
“It’s okay…” she said and leaned forward to hug him, not wanting him to feel bad about coming so soon.
“Yeah, I know it’s okay,” he answered, his voice harsh in her ear. “Like I said, I shouldn’t have just kicked you out. I should have fucked you first.”
“What?” She leaned back, not understanding. Not wanting to understand.
But Keane kept going anyway. “The hooker service I found couldn’t send anyone over until tomorrow. Apparently I called too late. So yeah, thanks for stopping by. That should tide me over until a real whore becomes available.”
Hot shame curdled everything inside her as his words set in. Over the months they’d been apart, she’d become convinced she’d made a huge mistake, leaving him to go out to the West Coast. And though he’d done nothing to stop her, she’d somehow convinced herself that Keane was the love of her life and that she’d been stupid to give him up, no matter how young their undefined relationship had been. She’d kept telling herself that, even after he had her thrown out of the rehab center.
But she got it now. Could see it clearly in the bitter shine of his triumphant eyes. That had been a story. Just a made-up story she’d been telling herself.
And all those excuses she’d come up with on his behalf for the way he’d treated her at the rehab center, the misplaced blame and the unnecessary yelling…she’d been fooling herself. It wasn’t the accident that had changed him. This monster, not the surprising boy she thought she’d come to know last summer, was who he really was.
That summer—that sweet summer. It had only been an illusion. And now that his hockey career was off the table, Keane had reverted back to what he’d always been at the core. A bully.
Oh God…
She awkwardly climbed off of him.
The panties he’d yanked aside slid back into place when she stood, but not before his cum dripped down her leg. More mind-destroying shame as she realized that not only had she fallen for Keane’s trick, she’d let that bully come inside her without a condom.
Six years…six years had passed since he called her a psycho in the school hallway to save face. But she responded now, just as she responded then.
She ran from the bully, hot tears spilling from her eyes, as she cursed herself for ever liking him in the first place.
Chapter Eight
Lena had run. And she’d never looked back. But here Keane was on her doorstep.
“Is he my son? Tell me. Tell me right fucking now.”
Now…she was a doctor with a Psy.D in psychology. She’d learned to talk over the years to both parents and children about anything. Yet, in this moment, she once again felt like the awkward med student she’d been the last time they spoke, unable to get the words out. Like no years had passed between now and the night that created Max at all.
Time. She needed time to come up with an answer—
“If you don’t answer me in thirty seconds, I’m coming in to find the kid myself,” Keane said, practically growling the words.
His threat recalibrated her priorities. Max…it had always been about Max. She’d wanted her unexpected but not unwanted child to know unconditional love. Wanted to protect her baby from the world, and the bitter husk of a man Keane had been when she saw him last.
But he wasn’t that guy in the dirty apartment anymore. He stood in front of her dressed in a bespoke suit. Tall, powerful, and even more handsome than he’d been that summer. And he was demanding answers.
“Yes,” she confessed. “Yes, Max is your son. I kept him from you. And it wasn’t a hard decision.”
He jerked back. He probably hadn’t expected her to blurt it out like that, without her usual sensitivity.
But a lot had changed since he saw her last, too. She no longer apologized for her actions, for her decisions, for just daring to breathe when her mother no longer did because of her birth.
These days she stood her ground. For herself. And especially for her son.
It didn’t take long for Keane to recover from his temporary shock though. “Get him down here,” he growled. “Get him down here right now.”
“No,” she said, her voice tight as she continued to stand her ground against what felt like a gale force wind. “I’m not going to let you upset him because you’re angry with me.”
“You think I give a fuck what you want after you kept my son from me for nine years?” he roared.
Thank goodness her father had decided to stay on at the store, packing some last minute things. She had no idea how she would have explained any of this if he were here.
But somehow she managed to keep her tone calm as she quietly answered, “No, I don’t think you care about what I want. Or what Max needs. I don’t think you care about anyone other than yourself, especially when your emotions are running high. That’s why I’m not going to call him down here. He’s just managed to reconcile a painful divorce, and the last thing he needs is somebody suddenly upending everything he knows to be true about himself, because his sperm donor cares more about assuaging his own ego than about his son.”
Keane scowled at her, but Lena could tell her words were getting through to him, when he came out of his charging stance.
“I will tell him,” she promised before he could ask the next obvious question.
A muscle jerked in his jaw. “When?”
“Before we leave to go back to L.A.”
A completely reasonable answer, but Keane’s expression once again became incensed. “You’re out of your fucking mind if you think I’m going to let you take my son back to California.”
Terror spiked through her chest. She had never imagined him finding out about Max. But even if she had, him actually wanting to share custody never would have occurred to her. The Keane she knew had barely been able to tolerate talking to the kids she worked with when she’d been an intern at the Institute for Better Boys. Much less given them any real time or consideration.
Revenge, she realized, cutting off an impending panic attack. This was purely about winning, not any real desire to keep Max. She just had to remember that. Just had to keep her cool.
“Okay, Keane. We’ll talk about it. In an office. With lawyers. Just give me a time and date,” she answered.
“That’s not good enough!” He jammed a finger in the direction of the ground with every word.
Lena was trying to keep up her empathy wall, but even she could see how upsetting, if not world-changing, this news had to be for Keane. No, he’d most likely wouldn’t really want the responsibility of a child after the initial new car smell wore off, but maybe she should take a more sympathetic tact.
“Look, I’m here all summer doing a training apprenticeship at the Institute for Better Boys. And Max is scheduled to attend their summer camp. If you want, we can set up a few lunches. Let him get to know you before I break the news about you being his birth father in a safe and healthy way.”
“No…” he started shaking his head before she was even finished with her offer. “Nine fucking years, Lena. A few lunches ain’t good enough.”
Lena could feel her tentative grip on her patience slipping. “I get that you’re angry, Keane, but I’m looking out for Max’s best interest.”
“And you thought his best int
erest would be not ever knowing his real dad?” he asked, his face thunderous.
“Yes!” she answered throwing up her hands. “I know your empathy meter is set to zero. But imagine what you would have done in my shoes after the way it ended between us.”
Quiet. So much quiet. That last ugly night reverberated between them like something radioactive.
Then Keane said, “Fine…”
Lena’s heart filled with relief. Thank goodness. Thank goodness, she’d had finally been able to make Keane, of all people, see emotional reason.
“You two can come live with me for the rest of the summer,” he finished.
“What?” Lena asked, jutting her chin in total disbelief.
“We’ll tell him it’s because Con wants him for our summer travel team, and we don’t have any more beds left in the dorms,” Keane continued as if he hadn’t heard her. “And we’ll say you have to be there, because of whatever legal mumbo jumbo about minors.”
Lena blinked, trying to come up with a reason why them moving in with him would be the worst idea ever. But weirdly, none were coming to mind.
Perhaps sensing he had dumbfounded her, Keane pounced, flattening both arms against each side of the doorjamb, “C’mon, Lena, you know I’m right about this. With our schedules and you trying to take him back to Cali at the end of the summer, it’s the best way for me and him to get to know each other. I won’t tell him, but I’ll be damned if I go another night without having my boy under my roof.”
Ugh…he had a point. This would be a good way for them to get to know each other, and perhaps get Keane off the custody warpath that much sooner when he saw what raising kids really entailed. But there was so much about Max he didn’t know. And she couldn’t predict how Keane would respond when he discovered the whole truth about the son, he’d decided to claim. Why? Because he was good at hockey? No, no, she couldn’t let him…
“You want to be stubborn? Keep me from my son?” Keane said, mistaking her silence as stubbornness. “Fine! I’ll be a dick about it. Either you two pack up and come home with me right now, or I’ll pull all my funding from that Institute of yours.”
Lena shook her head, not understanding the sudden juxtaposition of two things that had nothing to do with each other. “What do you mean?”
“I’m their biggest donor. That’s what I mean,” Keane answered. “How do you think they’ll survive if I suddenly decide to pull my funding?”
Wait…what? “No, their biggest donor is some corporation.” Lena had spent the entire plane ride to Boston, studying for her big opportunity like the hard work smart girl she’d been. “DGK Acquisitions.”
She trailed off when he reached into his suit pocket and pulled a business card out of a sleek, silver case.
She took the card from him, and her stomach lurched upon reading the words written on the card above a crisp DGK Acquisitions blue logo. “Desmond G. Keane, Founder and CEO.”
She swallowed. Well, wow…just wow. Apparently, Keane’s life hadn’t turned out how she’d feared it would when she made the very easy decision to keep the news of her pregnancy to herself. He had more going on than just being one of the spokesathlete’s for America’s number one shoe brand. In fact, if she was translating this business card correctly, he had transformed himself from a bitter and depressed alcoholic to the CEO of a real estate empire.
She felt weirdly proud of him and completely terrified at the same time. Keane had pulled himself out of his dark hole, but now he had money. Lots of money. Enough to make her life incredibly hard if she didn’t give in to his demands.
As if to confirm her conclusion, Keane said, “You have ten seconds to make a decision, or I’m busting in and telling that kid he belongs to me.”
His threat wrenched her out of her shocked daze. “Children aren’t possessions you can own,” she pointed out.
Keane held up his right arm and glanced down at a very expensive looking chrome-plated watch. It must have had a second hand, because he started counting, “10…9…”
“Seriously?” she asked, when she realized he was counting her down like Graham.
“8…7…” he answered.
Then because apparently this situation just wasn’t high-stakes enough, she heard Max’s voice call out from the top of the stairs. “Mom, is that the pizza? I’m starving!”
No, it wasn’t the pizza. God, she wished it was the pizza.
“5….4…” Keane kept applying the pressure, even as his eyes went to the stairs her son was currently coming down.
She never thought she’d feel any type of affinity for that Graham creep who’d tried to force her participation in his seriously misogynistic Spring Break Bang-Off. But she found herself fully understanding his frustration when she whispered, “Fine, we’ll come. Just don’t tell him.”
Keane smirked and lowered his arm, just as Max appeared beside her. “Oh my God, it’s you, Mr. Keane! Did you come to talk to Mom like you promised?”
“Sure did,” Keane answered, with an easy grin, like he hadn’t just spent the last few seconds counting Lena down on his ultimatum. “And guess what? I got the yes. You start training with our elite summer team tomorrow.”
Proving his young age, despite his above average height, Max dived forward and threw his arms around the hockey player he didn’t know was really his father. “I tried to explain what a big deal triple A was, but she didn’t get it. She wasn’t going to let me go! Thank you! Thank you!”
After an awkward moment, Keane hugged his son back. “Yeah, kid, anything for you,” he said softly to Max.
While glaring furiously at Lena.
Despite her giving into his demands, retribution still burned in his green eyes. An arrow of anxiety darted through Lena, and her stomach knotted. In that moment, she realized he was far from satisfied with her capitulation.
Keane would want his pound of flesh and he wouldn’t just be mean about it…
He’d be a total bully.
Chapter Nine
Eleven Years Ago
Keane never thought he’d be that guy in that movie, covering his girl’s eyes while he walked her up to a surprise. But here he was, guiding a blindfolded Lena out of his Escalade and across a sidewalk to his big surprise.
Then ta-fucking-da, he undid the blindfold to let her take a look.
She stared up at his surprise, blinking. Then looked around, her expression comically confused. “What is this? Are we…are we in Back Bay?” she asked, as if one of the oldest and most affluent neighborhoods in Boston was actually located on another planet.
“Yeah, we’re in Back Bay. And this is a house,” he answered, waving a hand proudly toward the huge boarded up Victorian brownstone.
“Yes, I can see that…” She gave the house a distressed look. “But why are we standing in front of this house?”
“Because I just closed on it,” he answered, spreading his arms wide.
She paused, and Keane could tell she was trying to figure out if she had heard him right.
“You mean, rented it, maybe?”
He shook his head. “Nah, this place is like, one city inspection away from getting condemned. I bought it outright. Cash.”
“Really? You bought it?” she repeated, sounding a little breathless. “For how much?”
She stilled at his seven figure answer, and the “trying to stay neutral here” expression completely disappeared.
“Seriously, Keane? That’s your entire signing bonus!”
Keane twisted his lips. The only reason she knew that was because of all the arguments they’d had whenever he tried to buy her anything real. Like a too nice dinner. Or a car. Or her own apartment, so that she wouldn’t have to keep on living with her dad.
And he decided to use those past arguments against her. “You said you didn’t want me to spend any of that signing money on you. You’re the one who told me to invest it in my future. So that’s what I did.”
“I meant invest it in like a Roth IRA or some
thing. Not a whole house! In Back Bay!” she pointed out. “I mean Keane…it cost you so much, and we’re in a recession.”
Usually, he loved the way she worried about him and his future. Like a sexy manager he also got to fuck.
“Hey, I got a good deal on it. Plus the next door neighbor is old as fuck. I mean on oxygen tanks, no heirs. Couple more years, I bet I can buy that house, too. Make this place big enough to put a rink in the basement…”
“Wait, you want to put a rink in the basement. Like an actual hockey rink?”
Okay, too soon to talk with his too-practical baby about an ice rink, he decided pushing forward. “And yeah, we’re in a recession now, but just wait, the economy’s going to bounce back and when it does this house will be worth twice as much. I’m also eyeing some sweet deals in Dorchester right now. Trust me, I know where this game is going and it’s better to start buying now when everybody else is too scared to buy.”
“Yes, but…” She shook her head at the decrepit house again. “It was your whole bonus.”
Keane shrugged. “I’ll make twice that signing bonus when we win the Stanley Cup. Plus, I’ll get milestone dollars for winning the division and making the playoffs.”
“If you win the Stanley Cup. If you win your division and make the playoffs. There’s no guarantee of that. Can you get your money back?” she asked, eyeing the boarded up house like it’d had taken advantage of him.
Instead of answering that question, Keane pulled her into his arms. “Baby, stop,” he said, tipping her face away from the house and back to him. “Stop worrying. Believe me, I know what I’m doing. I’ve got this. I’ve got us.”
All the fear, all the worry faded from her big brown eyes when she looked up at him. Just like it always did. Just like he wanted it to.
And he understood why, because all his fears faded when he looked at her, too. Nothing else mattered. The whole rest of the world and every single problem could go fuck itself while he had Lena in his arms.
Yeah, when he got to missing her so bad during that first string of preseason away games, he’d definitely made the right decision. He’d stopped by a jewelry store in Indiana and bought the ring currently burning in his pocket.
Keane: Her Ruthless Ex: 50 Loving States, Massachusetts Page 9