I bit my lower lip and averted my eyes. I’ve known this man two days. Count them…two! And already, I felt like I was on a freight train I didn’t know how to stop. Maybe it was best to get the ugly out now, before I became more caught up in him…if that was even possible. “I don’t have anything else to give you,” I whispered.

  He grasped my chin, exerting enough pressure to make me gasp, and brought my gaze to his. “What the fuck does that mean, Kamala?”

  I just shrugged my shoulder. It’s hard voicing your insecurities out loud to a virtual stranger.

  Kane let out a deep breath. “I’m staying the night. I’m staying in your bed and you’re just going to have to be okay with that.” He gathered me in his arms and held me close to his body. “Tomorrow over breakfast, lunch, dinner or whatever, we’re going to have a long talk about what’s going on here.” I just nodded my agreement into his chest.

  He locked up the apartment and followed behind me to check in on Trystan. Once I was satisfied he was comfortable for the night, Kane and I made our way to my bedroom. It was very surreal when we took turns in the bathroom, brushing our teeth (I gave him a toothbrush out of my value pack), and then moving back to the bedroom to get ready for bed like we’d been doing it for years.

  I’m not going to lie. I was nervous as hell when we started undressing. I wasn’t a fancy girl at all. I slept in an old, worn t-shirt that read ‘Honesty’s The Best Policy, But Insanity Is A Better Defense’ and whatever pair of panties I yanked out of the drawer. Normally, I would take a shower before I went to bed, but Kane was disrupting my routine.

  I was wondering if he could sense my nervousness, when he confirmed he could. “What’s wrong, Kam?”

  My shoulders drooped. “Nothing, I just usually take a shower before I go to sleep. You’re kind of messing with my flow,” I responded, sheepishly.

  He chuckled softly. “Baby, you can go take a shower. I’ll be fine, better yet, I’ll join you.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m trying to get clean, Kane, not dirty.”

  He strolled towards me and then gathered me in his arms. “How about I get you dirty and then I get you clean after?”

  And because I had no will power when it came to this walking, talking god of masculinity I agreed with his brilliant plan. “I’m down.”

  It was the best shower I had ever had in my life.

  Kane~

  I woke up feeling….I didn’t know what I was feeling. I just knew I wanted to keep waking up to the warmth huddled at my side for the next fifty years or so.

  After we showered, we fell into bed. But instead of ravishing Kam like the testosterone beast I wanted to be, I actually took my time with her. I loved her slow and I loved her thoroughly. That one time went on for hours. By the time I was done with her, I had memorized every inch of that scorching hot body of hers. It wasn’t until I finally bent her over and buried my face in her pussy with her ass in my direct line of sight that I finally lost my shit and slammed into her until I finally came.

  I slowly eased myself out of her hold and went to go piss and brush my teeth. Once my teeth were minty, squeaky clean, I went to check on Trystan. I slowly opened his bedroom door and he was sprawled out all over the bed. The sheets were hanging off the bed more than they were on his little body. We were going to have to get him a bigger bed sooner rather than later.

  Wait.

  Fuck.

  I was in bigger trouble than I thought.

  The challenge was going to be in getting this stubborn, independent woman to let me take over her life. And when I say life, I mean her entire life including Trystan.

  I was going to need to call the girls for their advice and the guys for their methods. I mean, clearly whatever they did had worked. Julian just married Iz, Nick and Avery were engaged and Chase and Quinn were pretending to just be dating, even though we all knew better. The girls were unreasonably female and the guys were crazily obsessed, but it was all working out, right?

  I snuck back into the bedroom to get my phone from the nightstand. After padding my way to the kitchen to put coffee on, I started ransacking the cupboards and fridge to see what all she had to make breakfast.

  As I was randomly pulling items out, I called Quinn. “It’s eight o’clock on a Sunday morning, I don’t have to work and I have no kids to tend to. Whoever this is, you better be calling collect from jail or on your death bed from the hospital.”

  No wonder my brother was gone over this woman. I chuckled. “It’s your favorite Alexander.” I could vaguely make out ‘I heard that’ from somewhere beyond the phone.

  “You were. You were my favorite Alexander before you made this relationship altering phone call.” The muffling went on to declare ‘I got your favorite Alexander. Hang up so he doesn’t shrivel up from rejection’.

  I closed my eyes trying to banish the images that were doing their best to break through. “Quinn, would you please tell my brother to put his dick away, this is important.”

  I’ll give her credit. She was quiet for all of three seconds before she couldn’t help herself. “He is trying to put it away. Away in my-”

  “STOP!! Sweet Jesus, for the love of God, stop! If you care at all for me, you will never-” She started laughing at me.

  The whore.

  “Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” She was still laughing though, so her apology lacked a certain depth of sincerity. “Okay. I promise. I’m good. What did you need, kid?”

  “You remember Kam, from Friday night?”

  “Of course I remember her, dufus. It was only two nights ago.” This woman.

  “Okay, okay. Anyways, I’m pretty you guys are contagious, because after only two days and two nights, I think I’m falling for her and I know I’m insane over her.”

  “Uuuuhhh, okay. So you need some advice on how to kidnap her? Take over her life? Because, if that’s the case, then you need to speak with your brother about them skills.”

  “No. I’m pretty confident in my kidnapping skills and if I keep her dickmatized long enough, by the time she snaps out of it, it’ll be too late. I will have already taken over her life.”

  “Good to see you have a solid plan, kid. So then what did you need help with?”

  “Her mother passed a while back and she’s raising her younger brother.”

  I could hear the rustling of sheets. I could picture her sitting up, getting serious. “How young?”

  “I’m not sure. He’s around seven or eight.” I propped the phone in between my ear and shoulder and started looking for pots and pans. “Anyways, quick rundown, she was working three jobs to support them and life’s been…uh, frugal for a while. She’s starting at K.A. tomorrow morning and while that will improve their financial situation greatly, it’s not enough.”

  Quinn was quiet for longer than I thought was positive, but then she finally spoke, “She’s going to start working for you tomorrow and you’re sleeping with her? I’m not trying to be a hypocrite here, Kane, but your situation seems...a bit…precarious.”

  I was trying not to be irritated at this blatant pot and kettle situation. “How so?”

  She let out a breath. “Kane, had me and your brother or Avery and Nick not worked out, Ace and I would have quit and moved on, letting our savings see us through until we found new jobs. Truth be told, only Julian and Iz are officially solid. Me, Chase, Nick and Ace can break up tomorrow, but we’d be fine.” She was quickly interrupted with an ‘I’ll drag you by your fucking hair to the court house tofuckingmorrow if you keep saying shit like that’. I guess Chase was listening in. “Anywhooooo, all I’m saying is if she gives up those three jobs for K.A. and the sleeping together doesn’t work out, what is that going to do to her? Especially, when she has a young child to support? You know what’s going to happen? She’ll be on the stage at Dante’s instead of just serving drinks there.”

  I gritted my teeth. I heard what she was saying. I really was, but I wasn’t going to not let it work out. I’m not going to say I was in love after only two goddamn days, but I was in this for the long haul. And if the worst did happen and we didn’t work out, that had nothing to do with Trystan, and there was no way that I would let that little boy go without ever again. “What I feel is real, Quinn.”

  “Good. So what is it that you needed that it couldn’t wait until a decent hour on a Sunday?”

  “Her brother’s, Trystan, birthday is coming up. She’s going to use her tip money from Friday night to give him a party, but it’s not enough.”

  Quinn knew how Chase, Nick, Julian and I grew up, so I wasn’t surprised when she asked, “It’s not enough for whom exactly?”

  “Me, Q, it’s not enough for me.” I went on to tell her about how I met him and how he was willing to sacrifice a shirt so that I could buy one for myself and she was done for.

  “I’ll call the girls. We’ll scour every single theme park, aquarium, whatever in a twenty mile radius and vet each place like we’re planning a party for the only eight year old boy on the planet.

  I had to smile at her enthusiasm. “Thanks, Q, and I want wherever you guys pick to be bought out. I’ll find out how many of his friends he wants to invite, but it won’t matter.”

  “I’m on it, kid. Love you.” And with that she hung up.

  I put my phone on the table and proceeded to make omelets, sausage and toast out of the ingredients I found Kam’s kitchen. Halfway through, Trystan’s pajama clad-self came into the kitchen. “Good morning, kid.”

  His face is all scrunched up. “What are you doing here?”

  I wasn’t sure how pissed Kam was going to be at me after having this conversation with him without her present, but I wasn’t going to lie, as if me being here was wrong or something. “I’m making breakfast.”

  “You came over here this morning just to make us breakfast?” He took a seat at the table as he eyed the omelet concoctions.

  “No. I spent the night here last night. You were already asleep when I got here.”

  “Hmm,” was his only reply.

  I lowered the heat on the stove and focused my attention on him. “Hey kid, yesterday when I told you I was your sister’s boyfriend that meant that there are going to be times when I spend the night here or your guys spend the night at my place. It means we’ll be spending a lot of time together.”

  “Kind of like a f...fa…family?” He suddenly seemed nervous. I wondered if he was afraid of hoping for something he’s lost once already. I insanely wondered for a second if I could get Carson to draw up some half-ass adoption papers so Kam could never keep Trystan from me. Then the thought got worse when it crossed my mind to drug Kam and force her to marry me while she was under the influence and didn’t know better. Goddamn, Julian!

  Fuck. I was losing my goddamn mind! And all because of two pairs of big, honest, heartwarming brown eyes. If this is how Avery, Q and Iz made the guys feel….all us men were fucked.

  “No, kid. Not kind of like a family, but as a family. A real one. You’ll be getting three other brothers and three other sisters out of this deal also. Or like uncles and aunts. Whatever you’re comfortable with, kid.”

  “So you’re going to marry Kammie?”

  I wanted to explain to him that no one gets married after only knowing each other for two days, but then, no one entertains ideas of drugging, forgery and coercion to adopt a boy they’ve only known for two days either. “Not yet. I have to get her to love me first. Think you can help me with that?”

  His little brows furrowed over his brown orbs. “I can try, but Kammie doesn’t like to be told what to do.”

  I brought my future brother-in-law into the secret society of confused males. “No woman does, kid. The trick is to let them think it was their idea.”

  He nodded like he completely understood. “I’ll try to remember that.”

  Trystan sat patiently at the table as I finished up breakfast. Kam finally made an appearance blaming the smell of bacon for waking her up. She ruffled Trystan’s brown shag before taking a seat next to him. I didn’t think she was quite awake as her genuine vulnerability came through. “This is nice. A girl could get used to this.”

  “Me cooking breakfast for you, or breakfast being cooked for you in general?” Pussy…I know. I know.

  She spared Trystan a quick glance as he dug into his omelet before she whispered, “A tall, chiseled, tattooed, shirtless god of a man cooking me breakfast. That’s what a girl can get used to.”

  I leaned over the table and gave her a light kiss on her lips. “I only care about this girl and what she can get used to.”

  I’m not sure what had her looking at me this morning with so much sincerity in her eyes, but I was going to take it. “This girl would like to get used to said god making omelets in my kitchen.”

  There was so much we needed to talk about, but I’ll admit, I was afraid to spoil this….truce? Acceptance? Whatever it was, it was still fragile. The fucking thing was only two nights, two days and one morning old. So I decided to put off ‘the talk’. “Why don’t we save the seriousness for another day and spend today doing something fun?”

  Trystan’s ears popped up at that. “Fun? Like what?”

  “Whatever you want to do, bud.”

  He looked over at his sister. “Maybe if you only buy me one present, we can take some of my birthday mon-”

  “Hey, Trystan, don’t worry about how much it costs.” It was killing me that this kid was worried about finances at his age. “How old are you, kid?”

  “Seven,” he answered quickly, “but I’ll be eight in a couple of week.”

  “Okay, well do me a favor and just be seven today and let me deal with how much money we spend. Can you do that for me?”

  He nodded, but he was still grateful and humble. “If you’re paying, then you get to pick where we go. You deserve to have fun too.” If this kid kept this shit up, I’d be calling Carson by the end of the day on a Sunday demanding he find a way for me to adopt this boy who I had no rights to.

  What’s the big deal about felony kidnapping anyways? I’m sure the guys would agree.

  Chapter 6

  Wrath: Because I know better than to believe in fairy tales!

  Kamala~

  Life was too good to be true these days. It was actually kind of scary. The last couple of years were wrought with struggles and major insecurities on my part, mostly due to the constant worry of failing Trystan. But, now, things were looking up and every morning for the past four days, I’ve been waking up thanking The Lord for his windfall of blessings.

  I couldn’t believe I went from wanting to bash Kane’s head in when we first met to craving his presence when we weren’t together. I had started working my new job on Monday, and even though it’s only Thursday, I felt like I was catching on and my trainer was awesome.

  Kane did his best to remain professional at work. He was always at the office before most of his employees, so I rarely saw him come through the doors during the day. On the off chance that he had a business lunch, I usually didn’t see him. And that was a good thing, seeing as I didn’t know if I’d be able to keep my hands off of him otherwise. The man had me addicted to his talents.

  He hadn’t spent the night again, but my feelings weren’t hurt by it. I was quickly learning that the man literally worked around the clock during the week. It was fucking hot knowing how hard he worked. Hard working men were sexy as all hell.

  The internal lines on the phone rang bringing out of my musings. “Kamala Edwards.”

  “Hey, baby.”

  Were the butterflies taking residence up in my stomach totally 8TH grade? “Hey.”

  “As a reward for staying away from you during business hours and still maintaining the illusion of professionalism, how about we do dinner and a movie tonight. Trystan can pick the movie so we don’t come to blows over chick flicks versus action flicks.”

  I knew Kane was going to get upset, so I tried to stay in line with the teasing. “Well, as much as I agree that you do indeed deserve a reward, I can’t tonight.”

  My response was met with silence. It didn’t last though. “And why is that?”

  I wanted to bang my head on the desk. “I’m scheduled to work at the club tonight and tomorrow night. I’ll be working six to ten. By the time I get home and shower and stuff, it’s going to be near midnight.”

  “Or you can tell them to go fuck themselves,” he retorted. “As I recall, you’re quite good at that.”

  “Don’t start, Kane. It’s not like I’m full time over there. I’ll work tonight and tomorrow night and then probably the same next week. That’s only four days. It’s not-” He hung up on me.

  The spoiled bastard hung up on me.

  It wasn’t five minutes later I found out why. I looked up as the sound of high heels came clacking towards my desk. “Hi, Stacy, how goes it?”

  “Not bad, Kam. The end of the week is always a blessing compared to the beginning of it,” she laughed. “I’m here to relieve you.”

  There was no way to hide the confusion that overtook my face. “Relieve me?”

  “Yeah. Winston called me and asked me to cover you for your meeting with Mr. Alexander,” she explained.

  I wondered if she could see the steam billowing out of my ears. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t aware I had a meeting or I would have said some-”

  She waved away my concern. “Don’t worry about it. It’s probably just to touch base on your first week here. Upper management is really good about our development and stuff like that.”

 

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