Consequences of Deception (22 page)

I open the door with shaky hands and step into the living room cautiously. Killian is seated on the couch, so I make a beeline for him and sit down next to him.

Smiling sadly, he looks me over. Again, this gives me the chills. It’s like he’s memorizing me, like he expects that this will be the last time he sees me.

Looking away, he clears his throat before saying anything. “Sloane… what I’m about to tell you is one of the biggest regrets of my life. Whether I believed the lies or not—you deserved better. I’m sorry. If you want me to leave, I’ll go. If you never want to see me again, I’ll understand. I’ve earned whatever reaction you have.”

Reaching out, I grab his hand and squeeze it. “I’m scared, Killian. What’s so bad that you expect the worst?”

The silence stretches between us for an uncomfortably long time. Taking a breath he blurts out, “Your father didn’t leave you to Stephen—he was the last resort, the backup executor and guardian in case something went wrong with the first choice. Princess… your father’s will named me as executor and gave me guardianship of you. I said no, got my lawyers involved and had everything turned over to Stephen.”

I stare at him for a few seconds, with what I know is a look of horror. Pulling my hand away from his, I jump to my feet.

He gets up as well. I frantically shake my head and put my hand up to halt him. “No! I need to think, Killian. Leave me alone and let me gather my thoughts.”

“I’m fucking sorry, Slo! I didn’t know…”

Continuing to shake my head, I back away from the couch. “Please… just… shut up. I need to think.”

Whirling around, I run from the living room and back into my bedroom. Realizing that he’s going to hear me crying if I stay in here, I head into my bathroom and turn the water on to muffle my sounds before I slide to the floor, pull my knees up and sob hysterically.

I give myself sixty seconds to cry it out, and I count each one down in my head. When I get to sixty, I force myself to stop. Taking a deep breath, I stand up, wash my face, wet a cold washcloth and walk back into my room. Lying down on the bed, I lay the washcloth over my eyes and start to think.

I’ve just spent four and a half years living with one of the biggest bitches on planet Earth, and this entire time I could have been with Killian. Suddenly, I realize that I still don’t know who filled his head with all of this bullshit to begin with. The only person that I can think of who would do something so deceitful is Celine, and once the suspicion climbs into my head, I can’t get it to leave. Jumping up from the bed, I swing open the door to the living room. I stop dead in my tracks when I find Killian pacing outside of my door. His eyes fly up to meet mine, and I immediately turn to mush inside because I see a combination of hope and fear in his eyes.

Forcing myself not to cave in before I get real information, I ask the question that I should have demanded an answer to the other day.

“I need to know who told you all of the bullshit lies that you’ve believed for the last four and a half years. Who did this to us, Killian?”

Running his hands through his hair, he looks away. “You don’t need to know, princess. I’ll take care of it.”

Getting right in his face, I reach up and grab his chin, forcing him to look at me. “Killian! No more bullshit. I’m not a child and I have a right to know. Who did this? Who ruined my goddamn life and played God? Who kept us apart?
Was it Celine?”

Looking into my eyes, he stares at me for a minute. I am just coming to the conclusion that he’s not going to answer when he finally speaks.

“I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry. It wasn’t Celine—it was Stephen.”

The weight of his words hit me like an out of control eighteen wheel truck.
Stephen
is the person responsible for single-handedly destroying the last four and a half years of my life?

I can’t handle it and my mind rejects that it could possibly be true. Stephen might be in Celine’s pocket, but there is no way that he would have made up such a series of outrageous lies in an attempt to destroy my life. No—Stephen is a lot of things, but I can’t believe for one second that he would betray me this way. I can, however, think of someone else who has treated me like garbage for four and a half years, someone that has gone out of their way to let it be known that they hate me.

It’s all so clear now, clear that he’s lied about everything just to get his piece of flesh. This man hates me so much that he declined to take guardianship of me, bulldozed my home and then bought me in order to make me a whore. Celine is a terrible person, Stephen is stupid, but Killian Brandt has them both beat.

I back away from Killian, with my hand held up to hold him off.

“You’re lying! You’re still trying to punish me! Why can’t you just let me live my life? Why are you continuously trying to destroy me? I hate you! I hate you!”

Spinning on my heel, I run into my bedroom and lock the door before climbing onto my bed and curling up into a tight little ball. I ignore his banging on the door and completely block out him yelling at me to open it, and, after a while, he stops.

I startle a minute later when the sliding glass door that leads from the balcony opens, and Killian walks into the room. He looks terrible, and I hate myself for caring even a little bit. Forcing myself not to think about anything besides how angry I am, I glare at him.

“Why can’t you ever
leave me the fuck alone
? Why do you need to hurt me so much?”

Climbing up onto the bed, he pulls me into his arms and holds me loosely as I flail and yell. He says nothing as I repeatedly bang my fists against his chest and scream for him to leave me alone. He takes it all, letting me scream, cry, rant and rave like a lunatic. When I am physically unable to hit him anymore, I drop my fists and try to move away from him.

Wrapping his arms around me tightly, he holds me immobile. “You need to listen to me now, princess. It’s my turn.”

Honestly, I don’t think that I can take any more since all he’s going to do is lie to me. “No! I’m
done
listening to your lies, you fucking psychopath! Every single time that I think you can’t possibly stoop any lower, you somehow manage to surprise me. No matter what you say now, I won’t believe a word of it. I know what you are, Killian Brandt, and
I hate you
.”

“
Please
, princess, stop saying that. I know that you’re angry and you have every right to be, but I swear to God, I am
not
lying to you. It was Stephen who provided me with all of that information.
It was Stephen
. I’m telling you the truth, baby. I’ll swear on my parents’ and Shannon’s graves if that’s what you need me to do in order for you to believe me.”

To some people, such a declaration would be meaningless, but I’ve known Killian long enough to know that he would never swear on the graves of his parents—and now Shannon—if he weren’t serious. I try to wrap my mind around the fact that he’s telling me the truth, and the pain is unbearable.

Tears pour out of my eyes like a faucet has been turned on full blast, and Killian rocks me back and forth as he swears to me over and over that it was Stephen. He alternates between telling me that it was Stephen, apologizing for believing him, and promising me that he’ll never let Stephen or Celine hurt me again.

It takes forever for me to get my voice back. “Oh, Killian,” I cry. “I can’t believe that Stephen has betrayed me like this. He lied to you, stole my inheritance and ruined the family business. None of this makes any sense!”

My tears have almost stopped now. Killian reaches out for the box of tissues next to the bed and hands them to me. I spend a minute or so cleaning myself up while he continuously touches my hair, my face and my arms, all the while telling me that he’ll get me through this.

I don’t know how to feel at this point. I believe Killian is telling me the truth. I appreciate that he is fighting for me and I love that he’s being supportive. But I am also heartbroken, beyond belief, by the reality of the fact that Stephen turned on me.

“Why, Killian? Why would he do that to me—to us?”

He’s silent for a minute and I can see his jaw clenching tightly. My stomach plummets even more, because the fact that he won’t say anything means that whatever the reason is, it’s probably bad.

“Baby… I just don’t know what to do right now. I want to give you the answers that you want, but... But I just don’t know how much more you can take right now.”

Honestly, the answer is that I don’t want to have to handle any more.

Wrapping my arms around him, I settle my head against his chest and breathe him in. He says nothing, I think because he recognizes that I need the mental space and time to come to a decision. I go round and round in circles for a few minutes before I finally make a decision.

“I’m not saying that I never want to know, and I’m not giving up on this. What I’m saying is that, for now, I don’t think that I can take any more. I’ll ask you again when I’m feeling stronger and we can have the conversation then. Promise me that when I ask, you’ll tell me everything that you know.”

Tucking a hand under my chin, he tilts my head up. “I promise that when you’re ready, I will tell you everything. I also promise you that nothing and no one is ever going to get in between us again. We’re past that shit and I won’t let anything keep us apart. You’re mine now, baby, and I’m yours. We’re a team, Sloane. I’ve got your back and you can have mine. We’re in this for real now, right on down the line. Fuck the stupid contract—I want you to be my girl. Are you with me?”

Love for him all but pours out of me as I nod my head and sniffle. After every horrible thing that has happened, I finally have the one person in the world that means the most to me back. When he kisses me gently, my heart melts. I feel more settled now, but I know of a way that I could feel better.

Pulling back, I cup his face. “I’m with you, but now I need you to do something for me.”

“Of course, baby. Anything.”

Taking a deep breath, I say a silent prayer that I’m not asking for this at the wrong time.

“I want you to take me back to our bedroom. I need you to hurt me.”

The fact that he looks completely gob smacked tells me that I just caught him off guard. He searches my face, apparently looking for something, so I leave myself open and stare back at him. Finally, he nods at me.

“I’ll do it, but not right now. Let’s eat something, shower together, get dressed and go shopping for toys. You need a little space between emotional pain and pleasure pain. When we come home from shopping, I’ll give you exactly what you want.”

I’m a little embarrassed to be in an adult toy store for the first time in my life, but holy shit is it amazing! I had no idea that there was so much stuff to use in the bedroom. Ball gags, whips, collars, blindfolds, masks, nipple clamps, crops, paddles, vibrators, butt plugs, lotions, gels, lubricants, DVDs… it’s a veritable smorgasbord of sex.

I expect people to be looking at us, but everyone is doing their own thing and we aren’t up on anyone’s radar. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that Killian is wearing a backwards baseball cap and his hair is tucked up and under. He’s not the most famous person in the world, but if anyone in here is a tech person or reads Forbes, he will be recognized.

This being my first time in such a store, I hang back and take it all in, watching in silence as Killian fills the hand basket he grabbed when we first walked in. Judging by what’s going into the basket—my ass is going to be on fire later. So far he’s gotten two riding crops, something called a thwacker, a leather ruler, a Ping-Pong style paddle, a tongue crop and a slapper crop. I let out a sigh of relief when he bypasses the lethal looking leather braided cane, and he turns and gives me a devilish grin that makes me wet.

“I can’t wait to use all of this on you, princess. You’ve got the sexiest ass I’ve ever laid eyes on, and I fucking love it.”

I love it too, and I know that I am blushing even thinking about what is to come. I never had any idea that I would like kink, but I really do. I shiver when he picks out a pair of handcuffs and some silk entangle ties, then let out a gasp when he puts a blindfold into the basket.

Noticing my interest, he wiggles his eyebrows at me. “Imagine how crazy it’s going to make you, to be restrained and unable to see as I work you over. After I’ve got your ass a nice red color, I’m going to fuck you until you scream.”

Each toy that he’s picked up has aroused both my interest and my body, but now I am at fever pitch and my panties are soaked.

Grabbing him by the arm, I stand on my toes and whisper into his ear, “We need to leave—like, immediately.”

Looking down at me, he smirks. Damn him, he knows exactly why I want to leave. Raising an eyebrow, he leans forward and whispers into my ear.

“Princess, is something getting you all wet and bothered?”

The whimper that I let out is answer enough, and I groan when he laughs at my predicament. Reaching into his pocket, he produces the key fob for the car. “You can sit the rest of this out, baby. I’ll be out in a few minutes. Be a good girl and keep yourself thinking hot thoughts while I finish up here. I want you dripping wet and ready to be fucked.”