Betrayed (The New Yorker) (19 page)

“I love you and all I want to do is
make love to you.”

* * * *

He felt his heart squeeze. Looking
at Lisette, listening to the words she was saying and how she said them clouded
the anger in his heart. How could he refuse to make love to her? Everything in
his body gravitated toward her; his soul and spirit were no different. Love was
making him weak. He tried to grab hold of his anger, anything to strengthen
him.

Push her
away, she betrayed you,
his mind screamed.

Love her,
his heart
cried.

While his hands had already started
taking liberties over her body—touching, caressing—they didn’t seem to be
getting their fill. He stroked the curves of her ass, before letting them fill
his palms and squeezing. Her groan of arousal earned her a satisfactory
chuckle. When she started caressing him, he couldn’t help his own hiss of
pleasure. Her touch and the heat of her body drove him into a daze.

Lisette sat up, straddling him.
“Take off your clothes. I want to love you.” She drew the words out in a
seductive lilt. “I know I’m new to this, but I have an idea of how it’s
supposed to go.”

New to
this,
those were the words that stayed in his mind. With a quick flip,
he dropped her on the bed and jumped off. His loins were on fire, but he wasn’t
about to risk sudden death by deflowering the eldest Ross daughter. Reno looked
over his shoulder, half expecting to see AJ burst through the bedroom door.

“Did I lock the front door?”

“You are concerned about home
security right at this moment?” The incredulous tone of her voice was laced with
a hint of irritation.

Lisette flipped her hair back,
bringing in full view her perfect breasts that had been hidden by her jet black
locks. Reno felt his finger itch with need. He wanted to let his hand comb
through her thick hair, to feel the silky caress between his fingers. But more
than that, his hands ached to fill themselves with her luscious globes.

“Put on your shirt.”

“What? Why? People don’t make love
with their clothes on.”

“Exactly.”
He
swallowed hard. With a deep breath he tried to calm down the pulsing in his
head—not the one on his shoulders. “We aren’t making love. Where exactly does
your brother think you are?”

“Here, with you, making love.”

“What?” Reno wasn’t quite sure the
word had left his mouth yet, especially since his lungs had frozen, trapping
all
breath
in his chest.
“He what?”

“I told him. I don’t hide anything
from my brother.”

“May I suggest that you start?
There are some things brothers don’t need or want to know.” Reno back peddled
until his back hit the wall. He leaned against it, watching Lisette as her
baffled expression was locked on him. “Why now?”

“I want this, Reno. I almost died,
life doesn’t wait for anyone.”

“Fear of death, that’s
what
brought you here today?”

“No, it’s the fear of not having
our ‘someday’.” She climbed off the bed and approached him, but Reno held out
his hand, asking her not to come any closer. “It’s always been, ‘someday Reno
and I will make love’, ‘someday we will move in together’, ‘someday we will
start our lives together’. You are my forever and I don’t see why forever can’t
start now.”

“Forever doesn’t begin with the
loss of your virginity. It’s starts with that first honest moment, the purity
of love.”

“I want that with you.”

“And truth, honesty and trust.
Lisette, to be intimate you have to be vulnerable. Do you understand that? You
have to trust me and I have to trust you, not only with my body but with my
heart.”

“Did you have that with Bitch-
toria
?”

“Really?”
It was
typical of her to lash out when she felt like she was being cornered. To him,
it was a clear sign she wasn’t really ready for the kind of commitment she was
now offering him. “I don’t love Victoria. You aren’t ready for this.”

She ran to him, her body blocking
him from the door. Reno couldn’t help but smile in amusement. If he wanted to,
he could easily lift her and move her from his way. But her enchanting hair was
still flowing around her perfect face, her luscious breast calling to be
touched. He was a red-blooded male, and didn’t know how long his
self control
would last.

“Love me. I trust you.”

Reno didn’t know if it was the
desperate edge in her plea, or it was his own need for satisfaction, but he
suddenly didn’t need to be convinced. He took Lisette by the waist, lifting her
off her feet and wrapping her legs around his waist. His fingers kneaded into
her soft back. All he could feel was her body flush against his, her fingers
grabbing hold of his hair and her lips caressing his.

“I knew you couldn’t resist me.”
The smirk evident in the slow drawl of her voice.

“God only knows how much I love
you.”

“Show me.” Her husky voice slid
across his skin like rough velvet, and he shivered at the demand in it.

Reno wasn’t used to the raw,
vulnerability gnawing at him. He felt as if his skin had been ripped off his
body, exposing him to sensations beyond his control. He wrapped her hair around
his wrist and pulled her head back. Her hooded brown eyes had turned dark with
lust. Her eyes shot to the bed. He took the hint but he wasn’t ready to lose
every shred of
self control
. He needed to remain on
his feet, focus on making sure they didn’t tumble on the ground. Reno needed to
rein in the animalistic desire that demanded he take her without a sliver of
kindness.

Reno balanced her against the wall.
Lisette let out a squeal of surprise when he balanced her with his thigh. He
grabbed the back collar of his T-shirt and pulled it off his body. His hard
masculine body covered her tiny one. Goosebumps rose on his skin as he saw the
look of appreciation in her eyes. He had only gone to the gym while he chased
his dream of being in the NFL. When that dream had died he hadn’t seen the
need. But the hungry look in Lisette’s eyes had just given him a new reason to
hit the weight room.

“I love your tattoos.”

“I love your beautiful soft skin.”

“Take me to bed.”

“Not yet, I need to control my
hunger for you. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“That’s inevitable.”

“But it doesn’t mean I can’t make
it easier on you.”

A warm brandy feeling filled his
belly when she nipped at his jaw. “Make me yours.”

“You have always been mine.”

* * * *

Reno looked out his window. He
could already feel the winter chill in the air seep into his bones. The warmth
of Lisette and the heat from their love making kept him hot inside. She had
been a virgin; she had given him the greatest gift of all. What he didn’t know
was—what he was supposed to do next. He already had so much going on—
Rhyne
and his father, the family business he was supposedly
inheriting. Reno wasn’t sure who he was anymore. Coming to New York had changed
him. He was no longer the vengeful islander. He was now one of the New York
Kent’s. He was the first-born son. His life had ceased to belong to his
revenge, now it belonged to his family and to Lisette. He was now accountable
not only to himself, but to his brother, sisters and the love of his life.

Reno desperately wanted to move
forward, but
Rhyne
was holding him back.
Oh little one. I’ll find you. Now that I
have the resources, I will find you.

“What are you thinking about?”

Reno looked back and his breath hitched
in his chest. She looked like an angel. Her black wavy hair floated in the
slight wind, his T-shirt hung off her like a tent. She was his angel. “I am
thinking about a beautiful girl.”

“Oh! Her first name better start
with L and her last end with an S.” She wrapped her arms around his waist,
rising on her tip toes for a kiss.

“Nope, her first name starts with
an R and the last name ends with a K.” He smiled down at her. “I was thinking
about my sister. I have to find her.
Rhyne
Kent.”

“You understand my dilemma, don’t
you?” The pleading look behind the pool of tears in her eyes tugged at his
heart. “You have to understand, I was also trying to protect my little sister.
You must, because I know you would do anything for your sister.”

“I get it, but you should have told
me. You should let me in,” he said.

“So should you.”

Reno laughed. He had been alone for
so long. Learning how to let people in would be hard, but he would somehow
learn. “You are right.”

“Of course I am.”

“Of course you are.” He barked out
a laugh. He had missed these moments of insanity with Lisette. She was
incredible and she was his.

“So what
now?
Now that you know the truth and are sure of how much I love you,
what do we do now?”

“How about
a date?”

“A date, that’s all you’ve got.
Pretty lame.”

“Ah, my inappropriate Lisette is
back. But what happens when you decide you want something more than you want
me?”

“That would never happen,” she
whispered.

The gentle brush of her lips was
enthralling, lighting up nerves everywhere in his body even in parts that had
no right to be connected. He felt her lips part and the trace of her tongue on
his mouth.

“If you aren’t careful, you are
going to end up back in that bed.”

“You can shackle me to the bed for
as long as you want. You definitely won’t get any complaints from me.”

“I love you.”

“I love you more.”

Epilogue

Rhyne
knew this
street was familiar. She stopped for a second and looked around.

In an
instant her mind was assailed by memories from the past. She could see him
running after the car. Back then she could tell he was running as hard as he
could. After a while
Rhyne
had wished he would just
stop. It was obvious he was getting tired, that his feet hurt, but Reno
wouldn’t stop. A while
longer,
and she stopped
looking. She sat in the back seat, tears streaming down her face, her hands
folded on her laps, hopeless.

The next
second she wasn’t in the car—she was standing at a front door, her fist lifted
as if she was about to knock. She heard shuffling from the other side of the
door,
Slowly
, carefully she pushed the door open.
Rhyne
walked in and it was as if nothing had changed
throughout these years. The couch was still in the same place, the television
was as dusty as it used to be. The potent smell of booze and cigarettes filled
the air.

The
terrified sound of a little girl crying pulled her toward the back rooms of the
tiny apartment.
Rhyne
almost ran into her mother. She
was just as she remembered, disheveled and barely sober.
Kono
didn’t seem to notice her. Another cry pulled
Rhyne’s
attention from her statue mother. She remembered where the hall led to, her and
Reno’s room. She walked down the dirty hallway kicking bottles out of her way
and walking around the syringes. No doubt
Kono
and
her boyfriend were having a party.

She pushed
the bedroom door open. The cries filled the room and froze her blood. The first
thing she saw was Reno’s tiny body as he latched himself on the man. She knew who
was under that man, it was her. To her,
Kono’s
boyfriend always looked like a giant. Even now as a grown woman she felt he was
the biggest man she had ever seen. She heard a noise behind her and there was
Kono
.
Kono
watched as Reno fought
to get the man off her.
Kono
didn’t move to help. In
fact her face was expressionless, her eyes blood-shot red. She was high.
Rhyne
had learned how to recognize the symptoms at an early
age. But something she didn’t understand was why
Kono
wouldn’t help them. She was their mother.

“Mom!
Help me!”
Rhyne
looked back and forth from her mother and from the
scuffle. It didn’t seem real. In fact it wasn’t real.
Rhyne
looked up at the dusty ceiling, seeing the cobwebs at each corners. She had to
wake up
.

“Wake up!”

Rhyne’s
eyes flew
open and all she could see was darkness. Reno wasn’t there anymore,
Kono
wasn’t there anymore and neither was the giant. She
sucked in a deep breath as her body shivered from fright. She felt a hard kick
from the inside of her body.
Rhyne’s
hand rubbed and
caressed the swell of her body, trying to soothe the baby inside—clearly
disturbed by
Rhyne’s
dream too.

“It’s okay, I’ll always protect
you.”

As if put to the test, the door
flew open and a woman walked in. At first, when she met her,
Rhyne
thought she was her savior. But now she knew the
woman was her captor. She was keeping her prisoner.

“Get up and get dressed, we are
leaving in half an hour.”

*The End*