Consequences of Deception (31 page)

I’m sorry that I was too much of a coward to say this long before now.

With love,

Stephen

From the instant that Killian read the part about Stephen and Shannon, my stomach has been in my throat. It wasn’t the man who raised me, the man I that loved, that got Shannon pregnant as Killian had thought; but it was still a member of my family – my biological father. To Killian, this may be unforgivable. Thinking about how I’m going to survive if we wind up right back where we started is more than I can take.

After he finishes reading, he pulls me into his arms and rocks me back and forth as he asks again and again if I’m okay.

“I’m fine… What about you? What does this do to us, Killian? Do you want me to leave? Are we over?”

Pulling back with a shocked look on his face, he glares at me. “What do I have to do to make you understand that I love you? Stop trying to leave me! None of this is your fault. The two people responsible are dead and they’ve taken enough from us both. Promise me that you won’t leave.”

Wrapping my arms around him, I cry against his chest. “If you’ll have me, I’ll never go anywhere. I love you more than life itself and I don’t ever want to be apart from you again.”

Kissing my forehead, he lets out what sounds like a sigh of relief. “You’ll never have to be. It’s you and me, princess. Forever.”

Nodding my head, I agree. “Forever.”

I awaken to his warm, wet tongue running a trail down my back. Letting out a little sound of happiness, I gasp when he spanks me.

“Don’t move, princess.”

Smiling to myself, I wiggle against him on purpose. I love how he reacts when I don’t listen the first time. Smacking my ass again, he moves across the bed and grabs something from our bedside drawer. Without looking, I know that it is the handcuffs.

As he’s snapping the first cuff onto my right wrist, we’re interrupted by a loud banging on the door. Both of us groan at the same time, flipping over quickly and sitting up just before the door flies open.

“Daddy! Trevor took my math book and Renee won’t tell me where he hid it. I need to finish my homework before the bus gets here!”

“Kayla, my question for you is this: why didn’t you finish your homework last night?”

“Daad! It’s four math problems. Mom! Tell daddy that it’s your fault I didn’t finish. She made me watch that Back to the Future movie again, dad. You know how she gets about her old movies.”

Looking over at me, he shakes his head before he bursts out laughing. “Yeah, I know how my woman is about her old movies. Go tell your brother that I said he has one minute to give you that book back or he’s grounded from his computer for the rest of the week.”

Running to the bed, Kayla drops a kiss on her father’s cheek before giving a smile of victory as she spins on her heel and exits the room. She knows that Trevor will give up the math book in a flash now that Killian is threatening to take his computer away. In a surprise to no one, Trevor is just like his father and grandfather before him—a complete tech genius. Renee is like me—tech proficient but not overly skilled. Although Kayla takes after Killian, she’s more interested in using the technology for her dreams of a fashion career.

Snuggling against his chest, I smile as I trace lazy circles against his stomach and think about how far we’ve come.

We’ve been married for fourteen years, and they’ve been the best years of my life. Four months after I graduated with my second degree we had our first child, Trevor William Brandt. He’s named after both of our fathers. The following year we had Renee Shannon, named for my mother and his sister. Two years later we had Kayla Demi, named after his mother and my crazy best friend. She was meant to be our last child, but three years ago we were blessed with twins, Sienna and Jonathan. We decided after that we weren’t going to have any more children… But I’m about to tell the impregnator that he’s knocked me up again.

I have no doubt that he’ll be thrilled. We both lost so much of our families that, to both of us, having this big brood is a miracle.

We’re definitely finished after number six though…

I think.

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When she’s not traveling the country like a wild gypsy, Ella’s favorite thing to do is read. She’s also a music fiend, a lover of all things funny and a night owl. She loves writing these books and bringing her characters to life.

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An excerpt from K. Webster’s new book, BROKEN.

Chapter One

“Come on, Andi! I don’t have all day. Some of us have been ready for hours,” Pepper called to me from the living room. Of course she’d been ready for hours. She was wearing jeans and a sweater for crying out loud, and it probably took two minutes to readjust her bun.

“Perfection takes time,” I told Olive, who was sitting on my bed while I applied the last of my makeup. “You sure you don’t want to go with us, hon?” I asked, turning to look at her. Olive was our new friend. She was a gorgeous black girl with legs that went on for miles. Her hair was smooth as silk and her eyes were the palest orbs that contrasted vividly against her chocolate skin.

Olive moved in with us about a month ago. She somehow managed to escape an extremely abusive relationship but had nowhere to go. When I found her crying at the café one day, I took her under my wing, praying Pepper would be okay with it. Of course Pepper fell in love with the leggy chocolate goddess as well, and she’d been living with us ever since.

Olive got modeling gigs left and right because she was perfection personified. But her fears of her ex sometimes cripple her socially.
A lot of times.
Like tonight, she was adamantly shaking her head to my offer. She had a fear that she might run into Drake and he’d drag her away from us, never to be seen again. It always gave me the shivers to think about what he must have done to her to make her so afraid. And the fact that she refused to ever let us see her without being fully clothed made me wonder if he’d done something to her body. Just the thought made me sick to my stomach.

The modeling jobs she took were mostly for magazines. She absolutely refused to do any live modeling at shows even though that would have been the best way for her to get noticed by more well-known agents. Olive gave us money when she got paid on these jobs, but we never asked her for any. We just wanted our girl safe with us.