Betrayed (The New Yorker) (20 page)

Prelude

The New
Yorker II

- On Call -

He could
hear the noisy chants of the college kids outside his window. His Range Rover
was built for the worst and the best conditions. But right now all he could do
was whisper a thank you to the car gods as the large back seat accommodated him
and his latest catch. Who would have known bringing Lisette to a stupid bonfire
would bear such fruits.

He stared
at this woman’s pair of perfectly molded breasts and couldn’t bring himself to
touch them. So he let his tongue do the touching and the tasting for him. He
stared at the beauty spot just above her left breast and thought how perfect it
looked.

“Be gentle
with me.” Her sweet voice spoke innocence.

His nerve
endings electrified as his hands caressed every inch of her naked body.
Kneeling between her legs, his hands cupped her soft rump and lifted her hips
toward him. He teased at her entrance, his lips catching and swallowing the
startled gasp that came from her mouth. He didn’t understand what she meant by
her statement until he buried himself to the hilt in her velvety cove. She was
as tight as a fist, and the flicker of pain in her eyes, told him the gravity
of what he had just done. He wanted to pull back, but her legs scissor-locked
him in place. Her hips rose and fell as she started to move against him.
Groaning in defeat he buried his face in her shoulder and rocked into her. She
felt so beautiful, so perfect.

His sweet innocent beautiful, Katherine.

AJ pushed his chair back, kicked it
to the floor and sent his fork sailing into the air and through his mother’s
favorite crystal.
Can this day get any
worse?
He groaned as his mother whimpered at the sound of her expensive
treasure shatter into millions of pieces. He shrank back at his father’s
disapproving glare, and brushed off his sisters’ cheeky yet curious gazes.
There was only one other person at that table that understood him, and he was
glad Lisette had managed to keep him around this long. That night, fate had
sealed their destinies. Lisette met and fell in love with Reno and he had met
and deflowered Katherine. Then he had forgotten her.

“Reno, I find myself in need of
your counsel,” he grumbled.

“Why not
me?”
Adrian Senior piped in. “I am your father, and older, wiser and
royally pissed off at what you did to your mother’s crystal.”

AJ walked around the table to where
his mother was sitting.
“
Lo
siento
, Mama.”

“It’s all right.” She patted his
cheek as he kissed hers. “I just want my little boy to be all right.”

AJ smiled; glad that she still saw
him as the six year old boy she was charged with taking care of all those years
ago. “As for you, Dad, you married your high school-college sweetheart,
then
had me, then you married my
mama,
you have as much experience as
Catalella
has with men. By the way, where is that no good bas—” AJ caught himself before
his spite and rage for his baby sister’s husband ran away with him.

“He’s…” He could see
Catalella
shrink within herself as she tried to lie for a
man who had been absent from the marriage since the second they’d said ‘I do’.

“It’s fine,
peanut
, you don’t have to explain.”

“I still say that she should have
let us throw him in the ocean,” Reno grumbled out.

“He misses another lunch and I
might just join you boys,” Adrian Senior pitched in. “I think we should take
the jet to the Seychelles on the way.”

“Only you would make a trip out of
a murder, Dad.” AJ rocked back on his heels, using his head he gestured toward
the gazebo, away from his mother’s garden lunch.

“Oh, right, you need my wise words,
but why me?” Reno grinned.

“Because, apart from me, you are
the greatest player who ever lived.”

“Former player,” Lisette shouted at
them. “If he ever tries something on me, I will cut off his balls, cook them,
then
feed them to him.”

“
Mija
,
you don’t have to be so crude at the table,” Rosalinda chastised.

“She’s just saying a truth,
sweetheart.” Adrian Senior emphasized with a bang of his steak knife on the
table.

“Yikes!” Reno cringed, his hands
instinctively covering his crown jewels.

They walked in silence until they
reached the stone benches covered with green vines and brilliantly colored
flowers. AJ gestured for Reno to take a seat.

“This must be serious.” Reno
chuckled as he sat down. “Tell me little brother, what’s up?”

“First, I would like to start off
as saying that you
are
in fact like a
brother to me. I would hate to dump your body alongside Michael Mathew’s.”

“Point
taken.
Besides, Lisette is the love of my life. If it wasn’t for your
rule to wait until she is twenty-six—which is twenty-three months, three days
and a couple of hours away—I would have married her and put a baby in her belly
by now. But we aren’t here to talk about my fantastic relationship with your
sister.”

“I know you were my sister’s
first—”

“—I don’t think—”

“I don’t want particulars.” AJ
groaned. “Actually, I do want a few. How did you deal with the emotional
responsibilities?”

Reno studied him for a second, and
then said, “I thought the cardinal rule was never to be a first.”

“I know. I know that,” he bellowed.
“I didn’t know she was a virgin. I kind of found out when I was already in
there. I just couldn’t stop loving her. She was perfect in every sense of the
word. Her body, the way she said my name, how she responded to me. She gave me
chills.” AJ’s body trembled. “I had to go on a binge to get her out of my
system. But since I’ve realized that Katherine is
my
Katherine, I haven’t been able to get her out of my mind.”

“Note that I am a good listener.
Make sure you tell your sister that. Talk me up before I ask her to marry me on
her twenty-sixth birthday.” Reno rushed on at AJ’s protective growl, “I heard
what you said, but I don’t think you did.”

“How’s
that?”

“You said you loved her. You never
use the L word, AJ. And now she’s in your system? What do you
mean,
you just realized that she’s
your Katherine
?”

“We made love—I mean we had sex two
years ago. She’s been working with me at the hospital for over a year now.
Don’t laugh but, I kind of forgot her.”

“What—”

“I only just remembered yesterday
when she was lying in my arms!”

“You forgot her?”

“Reno, don’t make a big deal out of
it.”

“It
is
a big deal.”

“That’s not the worst part.” AJ
groaned. “She’s moving in with me.”

About the Author

I listen
to the voices in my head and put it on paper.

Reading,
writing, romance, creativity and imagination are the words that describe
me
best. I was born in Nairobi Kenya and have a passion for
books. Romance and love have always been a strange phenomenon for me, so I live
these emotions through my characters. I have always wanted to change the
endings of a love story to suit my picture of what romance is, so I decided to
write my own. Check out my blog
www.mokauthor.wordpress.com
to learn more about me.

Enjoy!!!

Other
books by M.O. Kenyan

Denouement

Red Tears,
Blue Blood

Secret Cravings Publishing

www.secretcravingspublishing.com