She paws at a tear sliding down her cheek, nodding. “Yes, I do. So freaking much. I can’t believe you’re saying all this. It’s like you’re describing my feelings back to me.”
“You belong to me,” I snarl. “You’re mine for the rest of our lives. If any other man ever tries to come near you, tries to infringe on what we have, I’ll snap his goddamn neck. I own you, Kelly.”
“Yes,” she whispers. “That’s what I want, Kaleb. I can’t believe you’re saying all of this.”
There’s a pause as we gaze into each other’s eyes, as we silently agree this is what we want, this is what we need. It would be a perfect moment if it wasn’t for the bomb waiting to go off, tearing through our certainty and turning it to ash.
It would be a perfect moment if it wasn’t for my daughter.
“But…” She trails off, her eyes brimming with meaning.
“I know.” I sigh darkly. “But what the hell are we going to do about Natalie?”
“I don’t want to hurt her,” she says. “I couldn’t dream of hurting her. We’ve been best friends for so long. It would make me feel like the lowest of the low for the rest of my life.”
I smirk, trying to bring some levity into the moment as I lean forward and kiss the edge of her mouth. “We wouldn’t want that, would we? Since I plan on being there, that would make things very annoying, eh?”
She smiles despite herself, turning to meet my lips, but halfway through the kiss, I feel the shape of her smile change. She pulls away. “Tell me you mean this, Kaleb. Tell me this isn’t some kind of a joke, a trick, or something.”
“What?” I snarl. “I swear on Natalie’s life. I mean this. I want you. Forever. I want children with you. I want a life. I want a future.”
She nods, reaching forward and touching my forearm with a soothing squeeze. “Okay. I just had to make sure. I believe you. I know you wouldn’t swear on her life if you didn’t mean it.”
I lean forward to kiss her again, but then she leans back, turning toward her bedroom door.
I hear it too.
Somebody’s walking into the apartment.
“Hello?” A man’s gruff voice calls. “Angie? Angie? Where the fuck are you?”
His voice is aggressive, presumptuous, the sort of voice I recognize well from my time in fighting. It’s a bully’s voice.
“Who the fuck is that?” I ask, turning to my woman.
All the color has drained from her face, her mouth falling open in a twisted grimace.
“It’s my mom’s ex-boyfriend,” she whispers. “Lennie. He’s bad news, Kaleb.”
I rise to my feet, rage pumping through me.
“This bastard would’ve caught you on your own if I didn’t show up. How did he get in?”
“He’s a lock picker… among other things. He’s a real shady character. They met when she was doing research for a novel. She’s always liked bad boys, but he took it a little too far. Once he… It doesn’t matter.”
“What?” My tone grows cold. “What did he fucking do?”
She shivers as his footsteps come closer. “He came into my bedroom while I was sleeping and said some really sick stuff. Luckily Mom managed to get him out, he was so wasted. She dumped his ass soon after. But he can’t take no for an answer.”
“Motherfucker.”
I march toward the door, instincts primed, ready to do serious damage.
Chapter Nine
Kelly
I run around my bedroom quickly, pulling on some clothes.
There’s no freaking way I’m going to face Lennie in just my bathrobe. The thought causes maggots to squirm over my skin.
As if I didn’t hate the asshole already…
He made Mom’s life hell for months before she finally plucked up the courage to leave him, and every now and then he feels the need to pop back into our lives, letting us know he can break into our apartment whenever he wants. He’s a shrewd criminal, using whatever trick he has to disable security alarms.
Stupidly, I thought we might be safe because it’s been several months since he last turned up.
I hoped he’d moved on with his life.
Clearly not.
I pull on a hoodie and some sweatpants and hurry after Kaleb, my heart still pounding from all we just shared, from the way he looked at me like I’m the only person in existence he cares about and he can ever care about.
I want to scream with the relief of knowing he feels the same as me, of knowing my virginity makes me more appealing to him.
But then I want to roar out sorry when I think about Natalie and all the pain this could cause.
“Who the fuck are you?” Lennie snaps, looking up from the coffee table when we enter the room.
He’s casually rifling through Mom’s notes. Lennie is a big man, even taller than Kaleb, with wide shoulders and a twice-broken nose. His hair is a dusty red and slicked back. I still have no clue what Mom saw in him, but after Dad died she’s had the worst taste in men.