Betrayed (The New Yorker)
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Authors: M. O. Kenyan
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A Secret Cravings Publishing Book
Erotic Romance
Betrayed
Copyright © 2014M.O. Kenyan
Ebook
ISBN: 978-1-63105-104-3
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Publication: February 2014
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BETRAYED
M.O. Kenyan
Copyright © 2014
Prologue
Twenty
years ago…
“Dennis, you will do as you are
told!”
Dennis watched as his father curled
his lips in disgust. Barking orders was his customary communication style. How
he wished his mother had had the sense to birth this ogre another victim. But
no, his attentions and fascist demands were directed at only him. He hated
being an only child.
Dennis watched with disinterest as
his father paced back and forth in his office, instructing him on the duties of
a Kent man. Did he care? Not particularly. All he needed to know was that he
had a steady flow of cash. He was going to need it for his trip to Hawaii this weekend.
“You will take
Issadora
.”
“What?” He should have been
listening. “Sorry, Father, I didn’t get that last bit. What did you say?”
“You will take
Issadora
to this little voyage with your college friends,” the stuffy man instructed. He
should have been a professor, not a business man.
“I’m afraid that isn’t possible,
Father.” He was going to Hawaii to immerse himself in the local culture, which
included the women. The last thing he wanted was
Issadora
Fontanne following him around with that pitiful face. Sure, she was a beauty,
but she had the personality of a wet blanket. She wouldn’t know fun if it
slapped her in the face. “It’s a boy’s trip.”
“Your friend Adrian is taking his
fiancée Talia.”
“The difference, father, is that
Adrian actually likes Talia. I can’t stand that Italian wet blanket.” He
scoffed.
“Let me put it this way.
Issadora
comes with a limitless black card,” his father
proposed. “Besides, that Italian wet blanket will be your wife. We are new
money, Dennis. To get respect we need the alliances the old money will bring.
Issadora
is pretty enough.”
Dennis thought about rebelling. All
he had known was money. His father often talked about how hard it was to
struggle. Dennis promised himself that he would never be in that position. He
didn’t mind marrying his bank account. He would sleep with it if he had to.
“All right, father.”
* * * *
‘
All right, father’.
Dennis cursed his words as he
cuddled into
Kono’s
willing arms. He regretted them
even more as he tasted the surrender in her lips as her legs locked at his back
as he sank into her velvety flesh. How the hell was he going to leave her?
Kono’s
long tanned legs, her long beautiful curly black
hair, and how easily a smile claimed her lips had Dennis in a daze from the
second he had met her. Now they had a baby boy, their little Reno.
He had put off his marriage to
Issadora
for as long as he could. His father thought he was
in Brazil looking for business opportunities for the company. He was pressuring
Dennis to propose to
Issadora
, but Dennis always gave
him the same excuse—
Issadora
wasn’t ready. He had
managed to convince
Issadora
to go back to school for
her Master’s, telling her that her education and skills would be a vital part
for the growth of their empire.
Issadora
ate up his
lies without questioning. It helped that he was romancing her.
Dennis lay on his back, his fingers
twirling
Kono’s
thick silk locks between his fingers.
He loved her, but he didn’t love her enough to give up his fortune. Maybe he
could have both. Thousands of men had two families without the wives knowing
about each other. That was what he was going to do. As long as he didn’t get
caught he had the chance to be happy.
“I love you.”
Kono’s
sleep laden thick voice filled the hot air.
“I love you, too.”
“Reno is already two years old. We
should get married and give him a proper home,” she said as she cupped his
cheek.
“We will soon.”
“I’m pregnant, Dennis. We are
having another baby.”
Dennis sat up with a start. He felt
as if he had been kicked in the gut. One illegitimate child was acceptable. A
second one would be grounds for being disinherited. But even with that fear
lurking in the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but feel happy about this new
life. Denis reached for his phone when it rang on the bed side table.
“Dennis?”
Issadora’s
voice rang out.
“Yes.” He smiled down at
Kono
and tried to look disinterested in his call.
“Dennis, I’m pregnant. We are going
to have a baby.”
His heart jumped into his throat.
“Great!”
Chapter One
Lisette scratched her scalp in
irritation, making her long thick curly locks fly about. In a huff she stomped
her feet as she growled.
Lisette gave the six-foot-four
giant who had become her father over seventeen years ago a scowl. Adrian Ross
was the only father she knew now, the only one who loved her unconditionally.
It was hard to trust him at first, but you had to give credit to a man who
could stand up to a five-year-
old’s
tantrum, through
a bout of stomach flu and dance recitals that weren’t for his own flesh and
blood. Adrian had treated her like his second born child and first-born
daughter.
Lisette didn’t remember much about
her biological father, and she had to credit Adrian’s love for that. Adrian had
erased the doubts, the fear and the low self-esteem that she had. And by the
time she was seven, the nightmares had disappeared too. Lisette also noticed a
change in her mother Rosalinda. She smiled more, laughed often and she was
just—happy.
But the downside was
,
Adrian Senior brought with him Adrian Junior. He would
pull on her hair, tease her—but he also always watched her back.
“Papa!”
Lisette
tried to use her assertive tone. “AJ is not coming with me, Papa. And that is
final!”
The hard planes on Adrian Senior’s
face were set. Lisette looked him in the eyes hoping she could get the old man
to blink, even if it was just this once. The rest of their family, Rosalinda,
AJ and the baby
Catalella
gathered around them as an
audience. Each one of them was waiting excitedly to see who would give in
first.
Lisette was afraid to breath. She
was sure the second she took a breath her eyes would blink and she would end up
losing. Her now hot fingers dug into her thighs, warming her skin through her
sun dress. It was the first day of summer and she and her classmates from NYU
were going to a bonfire at the beach just before they went on the semester
break. Her jaw clenched, her stubborn chin stuck out. Lisette and Adrian were
so much alike, it amazed her that he wasn’t her biological father.
Lisette heard her phone ring, but
she never left the steady brown cool eyes of the man she challenged. Everyone
around her let the phone ring until it stopped and after a couple of more rings
curiosity had gotten the better of each one of them.
“Do you want to answer that call,
sweetheart?” Adrian asked, his tone
so
smooth as honey
she almost looked away. But then she caught his game when he added. “As long as
you know, sweetheart, the second you move from that spot you forfeit, and AJ is
going with you to that bonfire.”
Lisette chewed the inside of her
lip nervously. She knew who was calling. It was Michael Mathews, her date. She
had no doubt he was already here to pick her up. But there was no way she was
dragging her monstrosity of a brother along with her. She doubted if AJ could
fit his massive body into Michael’s car.
“AJ won’t even fit in the car.” she
whined.
“What does he drive?” AJ asked.
“A Mini Cooper.”
“Ha!”
Catalella’s
mocking tone rang in the air. “Even I don’t drive a toy car.”
Lisette’s little sister’s
personality was as wild as her hair. She was the perfect breed between an
African-American man and a Latina woman. Sometimes Lisette envied her little
sister’s exotic look. She was still sixteen and not yet out of high school, and
her youth and naïveté was something that Lisette also craved.
“Not everyone is a spoiled little
rich girl who gets everything from Daddy, baby girl,” Lisette bit back.
“Moody
much?”
Catalella
hissed as
she grabbed Lisette’s phone and begun reading out loud. “Babe, where are you?
Babe we are getting late. Babe—
ooh
!”
Catalella’s
drew a
shocked breath and left the sentence hanging.
That was enough reason for Lisette
to break her stand. Her little sister had probably read something she shouldn’t
have. She grabbed her phone and held it behind her back, just in case her
father asked to see it. Adrian turned his back to her and started to walk away
before Lisette could issue her last plea. He only stopped for a second to give
his son an instruction. “Go with her and make sure that boy keeps his grabby
little hands to himself.”
“Yes, sir!”
AJ
bellowed teasingly. “By the way, we are taking my car.”
Lisette let out a loud shriek. She
was determined to pierce each and everyone’s ear. But Adrian’s hiss sent her
silent. She remained in the living room with her brother and her sister, each
of them fighting to hold back a laugh.
“Since AJ is going, can I come with
you?”
Catalella
asked.
“No!” AJ and Lisette answered
simultaneously. There was much the two did not agree on, but when it came to
their little sister they were of like minds.
“You guys are no fun,”
Catalella
moaned as she stomped away.
“Here is the deal—don’t do anything
Mama or Dad wouldn’t approve of,” AJ warned.
“But aren’t you going to be there?”
Lisette held down the bubbling excitement that was rising in her chest. She
didn’t want to let it out just in case it was premature.
“I will be, and I’ll be checking
the scenery out—”
Lisette scoffed. By scenery AJ
meant women.
“—but I will have my eye on you,
Lisette Mariana Ross. Don’t try to slip away from me. I have been playing this
game since before you were born.”
“You are only one year older than I
am. I doubt if the girls at preschool held your interests between the sniffling
noses and the tea parties.”
AJ let out a bark of laughter as he
playfully punched Lisette’s chin. “Let’s go, kiddo.”
“I’m freaking twenty-two years old.
I can drive drunk but I can’t go on a date unsupervised,” she groaned.
“Let’s get going,” AJ scoffed.
“Promise me you will behave.
Please, AJ, promise me.” Lisette pouted her lip and put on her best puppy dog
performance.
She watched as AJ stared at her,
his resolve slowly weakening. He wasn’t like Adrian Senior who had learned
early in life to form a defense against the emotional manipulations of his
little girls. AJ was the big brother who would give his little sisters all his
limbs if they needed them.
“All right, piggy.”
Usually Lisette would have had a
nasty response for AJ’s nickname for her, but now was not the time. She was
going to be the nice compliant little sister that she definitely wasn’t. “You’d
better tell him to keep his hands to himself or, so help me, God.”
Lisette knew that growl in AJ’s
voice all too well. It was just a sound made in a second but within it a
warning that always comforted her for a lifetime. The first time she heard it
was when she started school in a New York semi-private school. He was her
guardian
angel,
even when he was being insufferable—and
she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Lisette walked out of the small
townhouse and rushed into Mathew’s waiting arms. She buried her nose into his
neck and inhaled the deep sensual scent of him. Michael was what Lisette termed
as overbearingly metro-sexual. He didn’t have a single tough bone in his body.
Sure, his five-eleven
frame
was packed with muscle and
he had the strength to carry a bunch of grocery bags for an old lady, but he
would never survive a fight against AJ. Lisette suspected that she could also
take him. Compared to AJ, the gigantic freak, Michael looked small in
comparison.
She pulled back and stared into the
brown eyes that reflected a questioning glance. Michael was staring past her
and she knew that her bodyguard was with her. “My brother is coming with us, my
lawyer’s orders.”
“When can I see your father?”
Adrian Ross Senior had seemed to have taken Michael’s attention away from
junior.
