I tenderly ran my fingertip down his jaw and over the red scratch I’d given him earlier. “I’m sorry I scratched you. I shouldn’t have done that.”
He said nothing but kissed the top of my head again, like a sign he’d forgiven me.
I lay there on the floor with him in that surreal situation that strangely felt so right, unable to sleep as everything I’d learned about Kane danced in my mind. The man who’d frowned from the moment I’d met him held me in his arms, protecting me even though he barely knew me. I didn’t know what would happen when we woke up, but for the first time in my life, I was in the arms of a man who made me feel safe and beautiful.
A twinge of sadness settled into my heart at the thought of all this going away once the sun came up. I’d never believed anything could be worse than a man’s fists hitting me, but as I listened to Kane’s breathing above me, I was sure him being that silent man he’d usually been with me would be more devastating.
To know that here, in these tiny rooms he called home, he cared for me yet in front of others I’d be just another Club X employee made me sadder than any beating I’d ever gotten.
I LAY with Abbi in my arms as she drifted off to sleep, my body yearning for more than just cuddling on the floor of my crappy apartment. Every fiber of my being wanted to make love to her, but that was a mistake neither one of us could afford. I should have never gone to The Carousel Club.
Fuck, I should have never let myself want her after that first time we met.
Two fucked up people didn’t make a good couple. All we’d make was a mess of each other, something neither one of us needed.
But now, as I played with the ends of her soft hair and enjoyed the feel of her warm breath gently drifting across my chest as she slept next to me, I wished more than anything in this world that I could be the kind of man she needed.
Then in a split second, my mind switched gears from wanting to make her mine to wanting to kill every single man who’d ever hurt her. The idea of someone holding her down as he hacked away at her hair made my fists close into angry balls until my fingernails dug into my palms. I imagined her crying, helpless as he punished her and she feared for her very life. I wanted to find him and make him suffer like he’d made Abbi suffer.
This couldn’t happen. I knew this, and still there I was with her in my arms as my brain wrestled with the need to beat the fuck out of the guy who hurt her. She didn’t need someone like me in her life. It was already fucked up enough for two lifetimes.
Yet with every moment that passed, she felt more right in my arms than anyone ever had. I closed my eyes and tried to push away the truth that never went away.
I’d only end up hurting her.
“Kane, you up?”
I opened my eyes to Abbi sitting up next to me and smiling. “Yeah. What time is it?”
Shaking her head, she lifted my arm to look at my watch. “A little after ten.”
“Okay. Guess it’s time to get up,” I said as I stretched the sleep from my limbs.
Abbi’s eyes opened wide and I followed her gaze to where my morning hard-on had poked out from under the sheet. A blush covered her cheeks and she stammered, “Where…um…can I take a shower?”
Scrubbing the night from my face, I struggled to think of anything but rolling her on her back and taking her right there. Looking away toward the bathroom, I said, “Uh, in through there. Feel free.”
Nearly jumping up from her place next to me, she trotted off toward the shower as I watched her gorgeous ass as she walked away. I squeezed my eyes shut and told myself fucking Abbi was the worst idea I’d had in a long time. Unfortunately, my cock didn’t agree with me, growing harder than it usually did most mornings. Even as I ran through every reason why I shouldn’t even think about wanting her, somewhere in my mind a little voice murmured that she was right there in the next room, naked and wet and…
Fuck! What was wrong with me?
I lay back down and covered my eyes with my forearm, needing to get my head back to where it should have been. Abbi would only get hurt if I acted on the ideas marching through my mind. I knew this. Now I just had to tell myself that over and over again until every cell in my body didn’t want her more than anything else in the world.
Ten minutes later, Abbi stood over me pushing my arm with her toes. I looked up at her standing there in just a towel looking fresh and clean and entirely too sexy.
“What’s up?”
“I don’t have any clothes. Remember? All I was wearing when you threw me over your shoulder at The Carousel Club was a G-string, pasties, and my shoes. I can’t go around wearing your shirt, and the t-shirt and shorts I wore there aren’t exactly good for daytime,” she said with a chuckle.
“Hmmm…”
I had no clothes a woman could wear, but I had an idea. Rolling over to hide my still raging hard on, I stood and walked over to the kitchen table to grab my phone. After a few rings, Cash picked up.
“Hey, Kane. What’s up?”
“I need to speak to Olivia, Cash. Is she there?”
My half-brother remained silent for a moment and then quietly in a skeptical voice said, “Yeah. Here she is.”
Thankfully, he didn’t ask why I’d need to speak to his fiancée before work started. Olivia and I had become closer after that Ciara Danson business, but no guy wanted men calling their girlfriends about borrowing some of her clothes.
“Kane? What’s up?” she asked with more than a little curiosity in her voice.
“I need you to let me have some of your clothes.”
“What?”
“I have a friend here who needs clothes and I don’t have any for her. You’re the only female I know well enough to ask.”
“Oh, okay,” she said sweetly. “What do you need?”
I looked over at Abbi standing across the room from me in my towel and tried to imagine her in anything Olivia wore to the club. “How about something casual that you wouldn’t wear to work?”
“How about one of my sundresses? Would that be okay?”
“Great. Thanks, Olivia. Can you bring it with you this morning?”
“Sure. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Do you want me to bring it up to your office?”
“No, that’s okay. I’ll come down for it. Thanks again.”
I took the phone from my ear, but I heard Olivia say, “Kane, wait!”
Pressing it next to my head, I asked, “What?”