Damn, I’d give everything for a second chance. “Don’t run from me. I’ll find you, and I don’t care how many restraining orders you’ll put on me until you get that we can be friends.”
Her eyes studied me, then she started to smirk. “That’s really creepy. And not just a little.”
I laughed. “I come from the streets. I don’t know how to do non-creepy.”
She nodded. “I see…”
I moved in closer, just because I wanted to and she had nowhere to go. I did keep my eyes peeled for any sign of her feeling uncomfortable, but when her fingertip trailed up my chest, I felt as if I’d won the lottery. “I promise, I’m still a guy who can make it all right for you. And I want to hear all about your worries, your sorrows, and the amazing butterfly you saw the day before.”
Her eyes widened. “You remember that?”
“Of course.” I swallowed. “Had we been older when I first met you, like five years down the road, I know I’d have looked at you differently. I was a boy from the streets and you were an angel. A pure and cute angel. You and I were meant to meet, and you know it.”
She cocked her head, her lips beckoning me despite no one being around to see us. “Kip…” My name was barely a breath, and I couldn’t resist.
I kissed her, kissed her like nobody’s business, and it was amazing. It was exactly the way I wanted it because this wasn’t for show, and the little sigh escaping her was like air to my lungs.
I felt revived, reborn, and when she wrapped her arms around my neck, I couldn’t help but think that we had a chance, a real shot at something good.
Suddenly she pulled back, as if remembering where we were and what we were up to, but the damage was already done.
I knew what we could have, and that would be my new goal in life now.
Even as she swam away from me, leaving me with a hard-on I’d never get rid of—until I had a chance to get Belle where she belonged.
In my bed and my life.
Belle
I needed to get away from Kip. He was clouding my senses each time he was too close, and it was the last thing I needed.
I had a plan, and it didn’t involve anyone from my current life.
I wanted my mother exposed for the fraud she was, and my stepfather to see what kind of woman he’d married. I wanted Kip to have his revenge, but then he needed to get lost again. I knew what he wanted, could see it in his eyes when he looked at me, but I couldn’t get over the thought of him having been with my mother.
I wanted to, figured it wasn’t more than dating a guy in school, but the truth was, it was not the same.
The guys in school dated a couple of girls, had slept with them all, but none of them had shared my blood—or had birthed me. And I didn’t care if half of Silvercrest’s student body wouldn’t care, I did.
I also thought about being friends with him, just because I didn’t think it could hurt knowing someone ‘from the streets’, but then we’d be constantly around each other, or at least talking to each other, and that wasn’t on my plan, either.
I pushed out of the pool, aware of Kip’s eyes on me, and wondered what it would be like to give in once, to erase her mother’s claim over him, but…
Shaking that thought off, I walked away. “Anabelle, where are you going?”
Taking a deep breath to reply something, but my mother appeared, a smile on her face as if she knew we were faking it. “Trouble in paradise?” She tapped her fingers along her arm, the shining red nails taunting me.
“There’s no trouble.”
She arched a brow. “Of course not. Although, for people newly in love you are quite…quiet.”
God, I hated her more every damn day. Spinning in my heel, I met Kip half way between the door and the pool, and I was on him before he even knew what was going on. My mother was watching, and would be watching, and I was going to stake my claim—even if I wouldn’t keep Kip.
I kissed him, my hand wandering down his abs and straight into his board shorts.
“Belle…” He didn’t stop me for long as I wrapped my hand around his cock, and with only a little incentive he was rock hard. “Oh,” he whispered and I glanced over my shoulder. Sure enough, Corinne Jones wasn’t going to let me get away with pretending this time.
“You wanted to come from my hand, didn’t you? You don’t mind if I prove something to her, do you?” I gave him a smile and he drew me in again.
“I’m yours to do with as you please.”
I squeezed his cock in my hand and he moaned, the sound raw and clearly not meant to escape. I wasn’t as experienced as many of my fellow students, but I knew without a doubt that I could get him to come in his pants without much of an effort.
“Can you feel the way my fingers wrap around your dick? Is it aching? I think it must be, being as hard as steel…”
He groaned, his head dropping forward as his hands came to my hips as he sought for something to hold onto. Changing my rhythm, I twisted my hand on the top of his cock and squeezed a little tighter.
“Fuck, Belle, I don’t think I want to do that just because your mother… Oh, shit…” His lips came to my shoulder and I felt him suck on the skin.
Fuck, he was sexy.
My body went hot and cold, need pooling in the pit of my stomach.
But no matter what, I wouldn’t give in to him.
Not after he’d slept with my mother.
Then again, it didn’t stop me from stroking him off and feeling incredibly powerful over it. I didn’t doubt he was leaving a love bite, a claim on me that I should probably mind, but actually didn’t.
I’d take that with me, even if it most likely was going to fade by the time of the masquerade.
Tugging on his hair I brought his lips back to mine and kissed him, making it obvious I wanted him to dominate the kiss the way I was currently dominating his pleasure.
I felt him grow harder, his thrusts into my hand getting shaky, uncoordinated as he tried to chase his orgasm.
And that moment I wanted to feel it against my stomach, on my skin, although he’d never get me the way he probably wanted to.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he whispered over and over again and I watched him come. He was beautiful, so much so, especially undone, and I had a feeling it could get addicting.
“You are such a handsome devil,” I admitted, not wanting to, but my lips didn’t listen to me.
“Don’t charm me right now. You just made me come. I’m ready to give you all you ask of me because holy shit…”
I didn’t think it was the first time someone stroked him off, but I almost believed he was impressed. However, that moment I realized maybe I could get something from him. “Who is paying you?”
Because I knew there was someone behind him. It had taken me a few days to catch on, but then I’d realized he couldn’t have gotten the job at the country club if he didn’t know the right people.
His eyes were sleepy, soft, and he shrugged. “Someone who cares.”
He didn’t deny it, and yet didn’t say more, but I had a feeling I knew.
After all, there were not many people who’d care enough to finance something like that, and I swallowed.
“I sure hope he’s paying up well,” I muttered and he drew me in, planting a light kiss on my lips although I was sure my mother was no longer there.
“I found you, and that’s an incredible thing in itself.”
I nodded, waiting for more, but he just gave me a lazy smile. “We should get cleaned up,” I announced, tugging him along—and hating the fact that the days to the masquerade were counting down even as I hoped we’d be there already.
Chapter Six
Belle
I felt Kip’s eyes on me even though we were wearing masks. I could feel the lust and themes in the air; the corruption and the depravation.
Silvercrest was a Mecca for everything dark and forbidden, and up until today I hadn’t been one who could say she belonged to the deceiving crowd, to t
he people who would do everything to get out of a situation what would be to their biggest gain.
Today I was one of those. I might as well take Kip and jerk him off once more just for the fun of it. The City Hall had probably not one single spot that hadn’t been covered in body fluids, and I figured that right that moment at least three couples were having sex in one of the nooks and crannies.
But that wasn’t why we were here.
Instead, I turned and found Kip’s eyes across the room. Mom and Corey had already left the main event to meet with their favorite people, those they admired the most, in a small room where they would have a private ceremony, would talk about the auction pieces before anyone else would ever get a chance to even look at them.
And that was what Kip and I would use.
I pulled my cell from my clutch, finding two messages there. The first was from a contact I had at the station and it read that the police was on their way.
The second was from someone in here, telling me he had the special music ready and would start the moment I’d walk through the doors of the Marble Hall.
Kip joined my side, and as he held out his hand for me, I realized he was trembling slightly. I nearly snorted almost un-lady-like, but kept it in. I should be the one who was nervous. After all, I was helping to bring my mother down, to ruin her life for something that had impacted me.
While I was sure Kip thought I was helping him because of the deceit and the kidnapping, I knew that wasn’t why.
No, I just wanted to be free of her and leave.
In fact, I also wanted to be free of the name she’d given me.
I wanted to be as far away as I could be.
Entwining our fingers, I glanced up. “Are you ready?”
He chuckled, but it sounded shaky. “You know, we don’t have to do this, I mean…” He licked his lips. “This could change your life forever.”
And now he was growing a conscience?
“Come on,” I muttered, tugging him along, but in the almost empty hall he pulled me to a stop.
I turned to him, annoyed, but found he had pushed his mask up and then took mine off as well. I felt naked, exposed, but his expression was serious. “When this is over, Belle, I want us to be a thing. I want to take you out, prove to you that I’m not the guy you think I am. Promise me that we can walk out of here together, that you and I have a chance.”
I licked my lips. “Kip…”
He framed my face and I swore no one had ever touched me as tenderly has he touched me. “No sex, no skin-on-skin, but real dates, real talks, real intimacy. Nothing fake, nothing pretend. Please, I don’t know how to do it, but with you I want to try. I’ll give up everything I am for you.”
I cupped his hand on my cheek, realizing I’d longed all my life to hear those words, to find someone who would care about me and put me first—always me.
But I’d never wanted him to have been with my mother, to be soiled by the one woman who clearly had never thought of me, but only of herself. And I also hated him a little for having been the one to show it to me.
“Kip.”
He kissed me then, the kiss as tender as his touch had been, and I wanted to melt. I wanted to forget it all. I wanted to have a chance at this, but…
“Promise me that you’ll give me a chance to love you one day.”
The phone vibrated in my clutch and he felt it against his leg, I knew that. “We have to go, don’t we?”
I nodded. “The police will be here soon, and you don’t want to miss the show, right?”
I had been saved by the cell—and couldn’t be more grateful because I couldn’t promise him anything.
Touching his lips, I stole a kiss simply for me. I needed that one thing to remember him by, and it was the only time I managed to cut it out, all out: his revenge, my mother, the cheating.
There we were Belle and Kip; two people who had been meant to be—in another life time.
Pulling him along, the Marble Hall darkened the moment we entered. I knew what was coming, knew exactly how painful the pictures would be, but that didn’t stop me from looking up as photographs were projected in huge frames on the wall while the confession my mother had made started to play in a loop around us.
For a moment there was utter silence, shocked faces turning to the photos they saw, and I felt Kip squeeze my hand tighter.
He leaned in. “Don’t look at them, please…” I knew his face wouldn’t be in any of them, but I recognized the tats on the hand in my mother’s hair.
I recognized it when it lay on her naked back.
I didn’t recognize the dick going into her ass, nor did I recognize it when it rubbed across her.
His fingers slipped from mine as I pulled away, and it didn’t matter how much he tried to reach for me again. This was the end of the life my mother knew.
This was the end of the life I knew.
And it also was the end of Kip and me, because we no longer needed to fake anything.
Whispers started out while my mother screamed somewhere to my right. I didn’t care, I didn’t listen.
I knew she was trying to talk away all the pictures, but there was nothing she could say, nothing she could do to make anyone believe she hadn’t done what the pictures were proving.
My mother was a cheater and a kidnapper, and that, truly was the end of it.
Kip
Anabelle vanished in the crowd of dark bodies. One moment I’d kept track of her, the next her blonde head mixed with the other blondes.
I wanted to stop this all. That moment, I wanted none of this to happen.
Yes, Corinne had ruined my life. She’d caused me to almost starve on the streets just by making it impossible for me to find a job, but that paled compared to what I was currently losing.
I should have known starting anything with Belle would be stupid.
Then again, none of it had been real.
And yet, to me, it had been because damn, she was the angel I was worshipping, the little girl I’d known I harbored feelings for before I even knew what it felt like to love.
I thought revenge knew no love, but I was wrong.
So very wrong.
The big winged doors opened from all sides and the police came in. We knew that there wasn’t much they’d do after taking Corinne in. Her crime most likely didn’t matter anymore because too much time had passed, but it would get my record cleared, and I’d wanted nothing more.
Now though, I wanted her daughter. I wanted her so much, it made my heart ache.
The lights turned on and everyone stared. There was a small group here, only thirty or forty people, and most of them I didn’t know by name or had ever seen before, but they all stared at one masked woman almost in the middle.
“Corinne Jones, you’re under arrest,” one cop called and I diverted my eyes from the one they charged to the one she’d allowed to be kidnapped.
It took a while until I made her out, mainly because she was hidden away in a corner, talking to what I assumed to be her stepfather. I didn’t think Corey was going to push her away, but I wanted to be there, wanted to tell her that she didn’t have to worry.
The silence in the room was unnerving as all you could hear were the cops moving through the crowd as people made room.
Corinne turned, trying to find her daughter, I assumed. Or maybe me. It didn’t matter if she realized who I was or not.
The split second I’d not watched Belle had vanished. I didn’t think the police was allowing anyone to leave, but that didn’t mean…
Nope, there she was, standing almost directly behind her mother as they cuffed her. Turmoil broke out and people talked over one another, the noise now deafening. I couldn’t make out what Belle said to her mother, and yet…
I didn’t doubt she needed someone by her side.
I moved in, and when her eyes met mine, Corinne started screaming like a banshee. She lunged for me, still detained, and it was almost a pleasure to see that.
; “You… You ruined my life!”
I nodded. “Just like you ruined mine. Picking up a poor boy from the streets. You taught me to survive. I taught you that karma will come. Always.”
Her eyes narrowed before they widened. “Alexander Kipleton… Kip… The kid you paid,” I explained, confirming what she seemed to have realized.
“I cannot… How…?”
I didn’t have the time or energy to explain it all to her, especially not when someone shouldered past me. “Belle, wait,” I called, spinning on my heel, but she was pushing through the cops, ready to step out of my life.
“Sir, you need to stay,” a police officer told me while she had just vanished.
“I don’t know anything about this, I just—”
He nodded. “There’s a masquerade going on in the Great Hall. I’d appreciate it if we could simply get this over with before you all join in over there. The mayor requested this to be as low-key as possible. Give us ten more minutes and you’ll be free to go.”
I couldn’t believe that Silvercrest was so rotten, they would manage to almost keep this secret.
Living on the streets had taught me a thing or two, and so I nodded politely, retreated before I snuck past some distracted officers and out the door.
The Great Hall had been closed off and I could hear someone talking in there. I didn’t think I’d find Belle there, so I stepped toward the entrance.
“She’s gone.”
I spun, surprised to find Corey Jones standing in the shadows, looking lost and powerful at the same time. “Excuse me?”
He smirked. “You’re Kip. I’ve seen your tattoos during dinner. Was almost jealous of them. And now I realize, you were the one to…” He shook his head. “Belle knew and yet she brought you home…”
I nodded. “She didn’t want to hurt you. She wanted to hurt her mother. I think Belle loved her father, and no matter how much it sucked that he never reached out—”
“Restraining order. He wasn’t allowed because he had put her at risk. Had he contacted her, they’d have thrown him into prison. Corinne did great work with her planning.”
The Society Page 4