Betrayed (The New Yorker)
BETRAYED
M.O. Kenyan
Erotic Romance
Secret Cravings Publishing
www.secretcravingspublishing.com
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A Secret Cravings Publishing Book
Erotic Romance
Betrayed
Copyright © 2014M.O. Kenyan
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63105-104-3
First Ebook Publication: February 2014
Cover design by Dawné Dominique
Edited by Lynne Street
Proofread by M.S. Daniels
All cover art and logo copyright © 2014 by Secret Cravings Publishing
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Secret Cravings Publishing
www.secretcravingspublishing.com
Dedication
Trust, is weak… it’s only meant for the courageous
The Cravings Ebook Club
The Cravings Paranormal Ebook Club
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**Blood Kisses (Nightwalkers 1), paranormal erotic romance:
Ashleigh Brown, the author of the popular Nightwalkers series, lives a quiet life free of the limelight. She keeps her real identity secret by writing under the pen name, Victoria Allure. She soon finds herself in a bind when she's kidnapped by a group of handsome vampires seeking Victoria. She then agrees to meet their Master, who's a huge fan of her books. But instead of meeting him, she accidentally crosses paths with her rock star crush. He is the sexy muse behind Nightwalkers and the man she based the hero in the series upon. She would do anything to meet him but little does she know her crush has a secret...
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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.
“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.