Obsession and Surrender (The Billionaire's Temptation Book 7) (3 page)

“I swear, you’re a pain in the ass, Keane.” Letting out an annoyed huff, she glared at him, though he swore it only made him want to kiss her, even if that would likely get him slapped. “If you must know, I’m a writer.”

“A writer?” Now that wasn’t something he expected, given that she’d been an engineering major. “What kind of writing?”

“The kind you don’t read.”

Chapter 5

Lilly hated that Keane was leaving her frazzled. And it sure as hell didn’t help that having him in such close proximity was making it hard for her to forget the sort of heat and passion they’d once shared. She might be keeping him at arm’s length, but how long could she keep that up? And now that they’d be under the same roof? She didn’t stand a chance.

“What kind of books, baby girl?” He flicked his eyebrows up, looking far too amused for anything good to come of it. “You know I’m an avid reader. I’ll admit there are a few genres I don’t normally pick up, though those aren’t many. Have I read your stuff?”

“How the hell would I know? Do I look like a mind-reader or like I’m packing a crystal ball?” When he reached out for her with a mischievous smile, she sidestepped him, knowing just how dangerous it’d be to let him get his hands on her.

“Sweet thing…” His smile widened, making her want to slap him silly. “Are you writing porn?”

“
Not porn
—erotica.” What the hell…she’d already told him the worst of it, and it seemed like there was little chance of avoiding it, especially if he was going to help her with her stalker. “Though I primarily write romances.”

“Babe…I’ve got to say, that makes me want you all the more.” He easily blocked the slap to his arm, his smile only widening. “So, when do I get to read one of your books?”

“Never.”
The last thing she needed was for him to start reading her novels, especially since they weren’t only explicitly racy, but she also poured her heart and soul into every one of them. All the heartache he’d caused, all her hopes and dreams, all her desires…they were what fueled her stories. And though it was all fiction, she still left a piece of herself on each and every page, and the mere thought of him seeing that left her feeling vulnerable and exposed, especially when he’d broken her heart.

He must have realized that she was no longer amused, because his smile was replaced by concern, as he gave her hand a squeeze. “I’m sorry, Lilly…I know I’m the cause of your pain, but…I need you to know that I meant what I said last night. I still love you and I’m going to do all I can to get you to forgive me. Not being with you is no longer an option.”

She pulled her hand free and glared at him, her heart hammering inside her chest. “Well, I’m glad I get a say in all this.”

He just gave her a matter-of-fact shrug, as if he’d already won. “I’d only be lying if I said you did.”

“Is that so?” How could a single man be so infuriating?

“It is.” He closed the distance between them, and though she held her ground, he was only a breath away, making it impossible for her body not to react to his proximity. And when his lips curled into a contented smile, she knew he’d seen the sort of effect he had on her.
Curse him
. “Get settled, baby girl. And in the meantime, I’m going to make a few phone calls, so we can try to get to the bottom of this and find out who’s stalking you.”

And just like that, he walked away, leaving her rattled, frustrated, and desperately wanting him.

***

“I’m not sure what the police are doing to find your stalker, but I’ve hired a security firm to help. I’ve worked with them before and they’ll be able to coordinate with the cops on their investigation and hopefully offer them the manpower and services they’ll need to get to the bottom of this.” Keane handed her a plate so she could grab a few slices of the pizza he’d ordered in. Even Juno was expectantly waiting for a piece of crust. “I’ve got beer, wine, hard cider, iced tea, and lemonade.”

“Hard cider, please.” She flipped open the box, and her heart hitched. Hamburger and onion pizza was her favorite. When she turned back to Keane, he not only handed her a bottle of cider, but the bottle of hot sauce as well, which she always had to have with her pizza. “I can’t believe you remembered.”

“It’s not exactly hard to forget since it’s my favorite, too—hot sauce included.” He set down his beer and grabbed a couple of slices, before dousing them in hot sauce.

“Since when?” He’d always liked his pizza heavily covered in artery-clogging meats—and he used to always tease her about her hot sauce habit.

“Since I broke your heart seven years ago.” He looked so forlorn, it was starting to weaken her defenses.

“Your idea of penance?” She shook her head with a bit of a laugh, though he was still looking serious.

“No…it was just one more way to keep you in my life after you’d gone.” But before she could say anything, he grabbed his plate and beer and headed into the great room.

She wanted to groan. Grabbing her food and drink, she followed him. “That’s not fair, you know. Because you’re making it sound like
I
was the one who left when you know damn well that wasn’t the case.
You
were the one who killed what we had, Keane.
Not me
.”

“Do you think I don’t know that I fucked up? Well, I do—because every day, I have to live with the fact that you’re not in my life…
that you’re not in my bed
. And it fucking sucks, Lilly.” He cursed under his breath, setting down his plate and beer with just a little too much force before turning back to face her. “I may have been the one who killed our relationship, but it doesn’t mean I don’t mourn it.”

Why the hell did she feel like a bitch? She knew she’d been lashing out at him since he showed back up in her life, her hurt still too raw despite the years. But she supposed she hadn’t counted on him hurting too. “I don’t know what to do with that, Keane.”

“I know, love.” When he cupped her cheek and brushed his thumb over her skin, she couldn’t help it when her eyes fluttered shut. And when he sweetly kissed her, catching her lips with his as she fought an onslaught of memories, she let him, even as tears stung her eyes.

When she finally found the strength to pull away from him, she was grateful that he let her go, her emotions and years of pent-up anger and hurt just too much for her to contend with. She sat down, and forced her tears to stop before they had a chance to escape, though her eyes still burned, and she was sure they were red.

He sat down next to her, and flicked on the TV as she forced herself to eat, still starving even if she was upset enough to have lost most of her appetite. Luckily, after a few bites, her nerves finally settled enough that she could enjoy her meal. “This is really good, Keane. And thanks…for all the help with this mess of mine.”

She was well aware that he was putting himself in potential danger, depending on how psychotic this guy was. Keane knew it too, yet he’d still insisted on helping her.

“Anytime, Lilly.” He gave her a quick one-armed hug and kissed her temple, before settling back with his meal and flicking through the menu options until he came to a list of movies.

“I know what you’re doing, Keane.” Of course she did. She wrote romances for a living. “You’re thinking that if you keep up the small kisses, touches, hugs, that my anger with you will thaw enough that you can then step it up to longer kisses, longer touches, and eventually it’ll end with me in your bed, naked.”

“Screaming my name, I hope.” He gave her a wink and tossed the crust to Juno, who caught it out of the air.

“Real funny.” She gave him a sarcastic glare. Even though she knew what he was doing, she could already feel it working on her, easing her hurt and anger with him.
Bastard
. And the fact that he also seemed to have suffered from their breakup only made her feel guilty for continuing to add to his hurt by pushing him away. “Well, just so you know, this little ploy of yours isn’t going to work.”

“Baby girl, it already is.” With a seductive smile, he cranked up the charm so he looked devastatingly gorgeous. “And I, for one, am glad for it, since I hate that we’ve been at such odds. I know the circumstances for getting back together could be better, but fuck…I’ll take what I can get.”

“No, Keane—let me just stop you there. We are
not
getting back together. Having my heart broken by you once was more than enough for me, and I don’t plan on being stupid enough to let it happen again.” She put up her hand to stop him when he started to protest. “It’s been impossible to avoid the tabloids—and I’ve seen the slew of women you’ve been with. It’s never the same one more than twice, so if you think I’m going to just add myself back on that list of women you fuck and discard, you can guess again.”

“First of all, those women know exactly where we stand right from the start—and believe me, they’re fine with it. But the reason there’s never been anything long-term with any of them is for the simple fact that they’re not you.
They’re not you, Lilly
. You’re the only one I’ve ever loved—and fuck, you’re the only one
I’ll ever love
.
There will only ever be you
.” He shook his head in frustration. “Don’t you think it’d be easier for me to move on if I could? Well, it’d fucking be a breeze compared to what I’ve been through. But I can’t move on—and I can’t get over you.”

“That’s some speech, Keane.” She couldn’t let her guard down—and it’d be far too easy to do just that. Far too easy to let him woo her or make her feel sorry for him. Far too easy to fall for him again and get her heart broken. She couldn’t leave herself vulnerable like that again, the consequences far too great.

“And I know what you’re doing—though I get it. You’re scared of getting hurt, scared you’ll fall for me again, so you’re keeping your walls up and trying to push me away. But this thing between us is undeniable, and staying away from each other just isn’t an option.” He gave her hand a squeeze, his touch warm and comforting—and safe, which was something she’d been lacking for a very long time.

Although her heart may still be at risk, it felt good to know she was no longer dealing with this scare on her own. Keane may be a lot of things, but she knew he wouldn’t let her come to physical harm, and that counted for a lot.

“You’re a damned stubborn man, Keane.” There was no point in telling him they couldn’t have a future together, since she knew it’d just make him all the more determined, and she was having a hard enough time keeping him at arm’s length already. But she didn’t trust him not to cheat on her again—and with no trust, there could be no relationship.

“I prefer
determined
.” He sat back and bumped his shoulder with hers, before picking up his plate and biting into his pizza. “Pick a movie, love. Or I’ll be tempted to find other ways to keep us entertained.”

Of that she had no doubt
.

Chapter 6

After a quick breakfast, Keane typed in Lilly’s web address, doing his best to suppress a smile—until she slapped his arm.
“What?”

Lilly glared at him. “You’re already smirking and you haven’t even gotten to the site.”

At which point he hit the Enter key.

“Wow,
Ms. Piper Skye
…that is one sexy website.” Two near naked bodies twined as one against a charcoal-grey rain-splashed background. Never in a million years would he have imagined
this
was Lilly. “And a
NY Times
bestseller, no less. How the hell did I not know about this?”

“That’s the whole point of a pen name, Keane.” Was that a blush flaming across her cheeks? Fucking hell, she looked gorgeous. “Right there… If you click over to that page on my site, you’ll come to my email contact. That service forwards the email on to me, and also allows for readers to sign up for my newsletter. That’s how he contacted me.”

“Do the forwarded emails retain the sender’s address?” They’d have to find a way to track this man down.

She let out a deep breath, and shifted at his side, leaning in to see what he was doing. “They do, though I don’t know of any way to track him down with just his email address.”

He clicked on her contact page, which was pretty basic, and then clicked through the rest of the pages on her site. Each of her series had a dedicated page, and there had to be over twenty-five books in total, each cover and title steamier than the one before. When he clicked on her bio page, his gaze immediately was drawn to the image of her looking sexy and approachable. She looked like she was smiling just for him, and it had his cock immediately going hard. No wonder Sirius was obsessed with her, when her sultry look could make anyone feel like they were the only one who mattered to her.

Skimming through her bio, he was relieved that she kept most things vague. She mentioned that she lived in a cute town in New England, but it wasn’t really enough for someone to track her down. And then he saw the links to all her social network profiles, and it got him wondering… “Do you ever use your phone to log in to these profiles?”

“Yeah…sometimes when I’m out and about or if I’m out of town. Why?” Her brow furrowed with worry, and he hated that she had to go through any of this.

“Depending on the settings of your phone, your apps, the sites you’re on—you might inadvertently be giving away your location. Every time you post a picture or update, there’s a good chance you’ve tagged your location. Even digital cameras use GPS to tag where each photo is taken, unless you go into the menu and manually turn off that feature. The same with your laptop.” With so many settings and menu options, it was far too easy to accidentally miss one along the way. “Until we get all this sorted out, I don’t want you posting anything online.”

“I need to be able to work, Keane. That’s how I do all my promotions—it’s how I keep in touch with my readers. I can’t just drop off the face of the earth—and I’ve got conventions I need to go to. Book signings…”

He hadn’t expected her to look quite so panicked. Keane didn’t quite understand everything that went into her writing career, but he was sure there was quite a bit to it that he hadn’t even thought about.

“You’ll still get to write—and once we go through all your settings and make sure your laptop is clean so that Sirius can’t track you here, you’ll be able to go back online, though I’d appreciate you keeping it to a minimum. As for conventions and signings, hopefully we’ll get this all sorted before you have to make any public showings.” As crazy as things had been, he never got to see the emails Sirius had sent her. “Do you have his emails to you?”

“Not all of them, but most—especially once they started to get weird.” Reaching over to access her keyboard, she leaned into him, her curves brushing against him as her sweet scent filled his head. He couldn’t help but take a deep breath, his eyes slipping shut for just a moment as he fought to keep from ravishing her. “Right here in this file.”

He clicked on each email and sent them to his printer, figuring it’d be easier to deal with them. “I’m going to forward these to Hadley and her security team. Hopefully it won’t take them long to track down the bastard.”

She got up and went to the printer, returning with the stack of emails. “Here you go. They go back about three months. Before that, he was getting a little more personal, but he was just coming across as overly friendly instead of creepy, so I didn’t keep them.”

Keane took the stack she handed him, and started going through them, his anger escalating with each one he read as she paced the floor, looking nervous. The man was fucked in the head. Of that, Keane had no doubt. It wasn’t just the intimacy Sirius was projecting toward Lilly; it was his conviction that they would be together forever, that he was the hero in her love story, that no one else was right for her but him. And when she stopped returning his emails, things escalated.

Fuck
…he wanted to punch something. “I can’t believe you’ve been dealing with this on your own.”

“I kept hoping that if I ignored him, he’d go away. But he didn’t—he just got worse. And he got angry.” She wrapped her arms around herself as if to somehow shield herself from the monster lurking in the shadows.

Needing to comfort her, to protect her, he crossed to her side and pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly to him. The fact that she didn’t push him away was an indication of just how worried she was. Yet, holding her close only ignited the fire between them, so it was like trying to hold back a raging storm. He pulled away just enough to look at her, his heart hammering inside his chest as he fought back his need for her.

He paused for a moment, his eyes locked on hers as he cupped her face, but then, unable to resist her, he hauled her to him, capturing her mouth in a kiss, his actions slow and purposeful, unable to hold back any longer. His kiss deepened as she held onto him, kissing him back, his tongue finding hers as his body instantly recalled what it was like to have her, to claim her, to have her tight body wrapped around his hard cock.

She slipped her arms around his neck and pulled him to her, giving him hope as her body pressed against his in a remembered familiarity—but only for a moment more. As if coming to her senses, she turned away from him and pulled out of his arms. “I’m sorry…I can’t do this, Keane. Sex was never the problem—but trusting you…that’s still an issue.”

“I know I hurt you, but you can’t keep pushing me away when you know we’re meant to be together.” He pulled her back into his arms, his head bent to hers, breathing in her scent with his arm tight around her waist, needing her to see that the only way for them to find happiness was with each other. “It was one mistake, Lilly. And I know it was a big one, but haven’t we suffered enough? I was an idiot—and I’ve paid dearly for it. But that’s no longer me. I’m loyal—and I’m still in love with you.”

“Loyal? That’s yet to be proved—and I’ve moved on. I’m sorry, but I’m just not interested.” Yet there was little conviction in her voice, and he knew she was just being stubborn because he’d already hurt her once before.

“You know that’s nothing but a lie. You’re not married or engaged—hell, you’re not even dating anyone.” Which made him damn happy, since the thought of another man touching her made him fucking insane.

“You don’t know that. I could have a boyfriend, Keane.” Her eyes flamed with frustration and anger, and though she could certainly have any man she wanted, he doubted there was anyone.

“You don’t, Lil. If there was another man in your life, you’d have turned to him for help, or at the very least mentioned him when I brought up having you stay with me. But you didn’t do either of those things—because neither one of us has truly moved on.” He’d dated plenty, but he never had any interest in his partners beyond satisfying his sexual needs. And even then, he’d never managed to get much relief or satisfaction, when he couldn’t help but compare every experience to what he’d had with Lilly.

She let out a frustrated sigh, though she’d yet to fully step out of his arms. “That’s because I don’t trust men after…what you put me through. I thought we were happy; I thought things were serious between us. That we might eventually get married and have a family.”

“I wanted that too, Lilly… But I panicked and fucked things up—even though I loved you.” One fucking mistake that ruined his life.

“You could have just talked to me about it or broken things off, but you didn’t. You betrayed me—and now you’re asking me to trust you again and I don’t know that I have it in me.” Yet she was so close, as if she couldn’t bear to pull away, couldn’t truly deny what was between them.

“Stop overthinking it, Lil.” He nuzzled her and bit her lip, his heart hammering against his chest. “I know I was the one to break you—but I’m now asking you to let me ease your heartache and make you whole again. Let me put the pieces back together—let me love you. You have my word I won’t ever hurt you again.”

“Keane…” But then he was kissing her, his tongue bullying its way past her lips as her hands fisted his shirt and pulled him close.

Their kiss deepened until his head was spinning and he could think of nothing but having her once again, eager to erase their years apart and make up for lost time. With an arm around her waist and a hand on her ass, he lifted her up off the ground, her legs wrapping around his waist as he turned her toward the kitchen table mere feet away, kicking the chair aside.

Desperate to have her, even the bedroom seemed too far away in that moment, and there was no way he was going to risk giving her even a second to overthink what was between them. Because he knew he was right—they were meant to be together, even if he’d yet to convince her of it.

With his mouth still hard on hers and his cock pressed against her heat, he let his hands skim down her body, pausing to cup her breasts and tease her nipples, loving how she arched her back in response. She made his head spin when she reached between them to stroke his hard length, making him groan in response, her hands finding their way to the buckle and zipper of his jeans as he followed suit.

Too impatient, he yanked her jeans off, making sure to take her panties with them, so she was bare from the waist down, his cock aching at the mere sight of her. Desperately needing to have her, to taste her, he dropped to his knees, happy to worship before her after years spent wanting her, reliving in his head what they’d had between them, living off his memories of their time together.

He ran his hands down her legs and pressed her knees back to open her up to him, giving him full access to all she had to offer. It’d been so long…so long since he tasted her, touched her, it was all he could do to not ravish her like a man starved of all nourishment.

He nipped at her inner thigh, his stubble rough against her soft skin, each bite eliciting a needy gasp from her lips as he worked his way to her sweet sex, before running his tongue along her slit. “You’re so fucking wet for me, Lil.”

“It’s been so long, Keane…” Her hips tilted toward him as he sucked her clit into his mouth and teased it with his tongue, her taste salty sweet and all her own. He feasted on her, while slipping two fingers deep inside her, slowly fucking her as she dug her fingers in his hair and pulled her to him, her legs wrapping around his shoulders. And when he curled his fingers deep inside her, and pressed another finger to the slick bud of her ass, he knew he had her on the verge of coming, his name a needy cry on her lips.

Not that he was ready to let her come just yet.