Obsession and Surrender (The Billionaire's Temptation Book 7) (8 page)

Chapter 15

Lilly didn’t want to think about it—and she sure as hell didn’t want to have to explain it all to Keane. It left her feeling embarrassed and stupid, vulnerable and broken—which was why she’d done all she could to try to forget that part of her life. “His name’s Dylan. I dated him for a short while after we split up. He had this habit of always chewing cinnamon gum.”

“How long were you together?” Keane’s jaw tightened, and she knew he wasn’t happy—not that she needed him to give her a hard time about it when she already felt like crap.

“Long enough for me to fuck him, if that’s what you’re after.” Her hurt and frustration had her lashing out. Sleeping with Dylan had been one of the biggest mistakes of her life—all in an attempt to forget Keane, and to try to get over her broken heart.

“That’s fucking brilliant.” Keane started to pace the room, vibrating with jealousy and anger. “So the guy who’s stalking you might be someone you’ve known all along, instead of a deranged fan?”

“Yeah—
if
it’s him, which sort of feels like a long shot, since I haven’t seen nor heard from him in seven years.” Why would he show up now all of a sudden?

“Seven?” Keane’s eyes widened incredulously. “Had my side of the bed even had a chance to cool down before you let this asshole in?”

“Except that you were already keeping your cock warm elsewhere while I was in bed waiting for you, so don’t you dare start with me, Keane.” When tears stung her eyes, she let out a stream of curses under her breath.

He added a few curses of his own when he saw how upset she was, pulling her into his arms. “It just makes me crazy to think of you with this guy.”

She sucked in a ragged breath, knowing she’d have to come clean about the sort of relationship it’d been. “Keane…if it is Dylan…” The shudder raced through her body before she was able to stop it, and she knew it hadn’t gone unnoticed.

Keane pulled back and cupped her face in his hands, his gaze taking her in as his eyes darkened. “What the fuck did he do to you, Lil?”

“He was…rough—
and not in a fun way
. Of course, it didn’t start out that way. He’d been sexy and sweet at the beginning. But then he started to get jealous and controlling. Wanted to constantly know where I was, where I was going, who I’d been with, even if I was just going to class or hanging out with friends.” And then things had gotten scary—scary enough that she didn’t want to tell Keane, knowing he’d lose it. “I broke things off. Except that he refused to go. He kept begging me to take him back, and freaking out when I didn’t. I should have called the cops, but I was too young and stupid to realize how out of control he’d gotten.”

“What did he do, Lil?” This time, Keane’s voice was laced, not only with anger, but with dread, clearly anticipating the worst—and he wouldn’t be wrong.

“He said he’d go in the morning, once and for all, if he could just hold me in his arms for one more night. Of course, I refused to let him stay, which ended up just pissing him off.” She pushed the memories from her mind with another shudder.

Keane brushed his thumbs across her cheeks and bent his head to hers, his body vibrating with suppressed anger.
“Did he fucking hurt you? Tell me what he did, Lil.”

Her tears spilled over, her voice cracking as she spoke. “Yeah, he did, but…I can’t relive all that again. I’ve locked it all away, and did all I could to move past it.”

Keane looked ready to put his fist through a wall, ready to hunt down Dylan and murder with him with his bare hands—and she loved him for it. “It’s my fucking fault. You know that, don’t you?”

“It’d be easy to blame you, Keane—and maybe I did for a while. But the truth is that Dylan’s the only one at fault here. He’s the one who…” She let her words die on a choked sob she couldn’t contain, her arms wrapping around Keane’s neck as he scooped her into his arms and sat down with her in his lap, holding her tightly to him as he tried to soothe her with comforting words murmured against her skin.

He kissed the top of her head, kissed her forehead and the tears on her cheeks, covering her in sweet kisses, his mouth catching hers in a whisper, pushing her tears away until it was just the two of them once more. He broke away from their kiss, though it was just enough for him to get the words out, his stubble rough against the delicate skin of her face. “I swear, Lil…I won’t ever let him touch you again. I’ll fucking murder him with my bare hands if he comes near you again, tear him limb from limb.”

“I tried to press charges, you know. But…the cops didn’t want to pursue the assault charges because his dad was a police officer in a neighboring town, so they let him off with a warning. And…the rape…they said there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute, since we’d been in a relationship, and he was claiming it was consensual.” Maybe things had changed in the last seven years. It certainly felt like the police and the courts were more willing to prosecute rape cases, but when someone was well connected, it still seemed like there were few willing to put their careers on the line once it involved influential people who weren’t afraid to retaliate.

“Fuck, Lilly…”
Keane was beyond furious, looking like a man ready to unleash his fury on his mortal enemy—and worst of all, he looked heartbroken. “I need to get you someplace safe, somewhere where he won’t be able to touch you. And I need him to fucking pay for what he’s done. Need to find him…”

“We should tell Hadley. It’d give her another direction to look in, though…honestly, Keane, the sort of computer knowledge she’s been talking about doesn’t sound like Dylan. None of it does, which is why I hadn’t thought to mention him.” Especially since she hadn’t wanted to tell Keane what had happened.

“What’s his last name?” He was already pulling out his phone and texting Hadley the details.

“It’s West—Dylan West.”

***

It didn’t take long for Hadley to get back to them, and by the sounds of it, Keane wasn’t happy. “It has to be him… Yeah, I understand. It just doesn’t make sense. Fuck… Okay, thanks…”

“It’s not him, is it?” Lilly slipped her hand into Keane’s, needing that physical connection to reassure her that everything would be all right.

“He’s been locked up for the last two years after he got into a bar fight and nearly killed a guy who looked at him the wrong way.” Keane shook his head. “Who the fuck were you dating, Lilly?”

“Well, clearly, I have horrible taste in men.” She pulled her hand free of his, annoyed at his implication that she somehow should have known better than to date Dylan, when the truth was, he’d done a damn fine job of masking his temper until it was too late.

“Lil…that’s not what I meant.” When she pinned him with an incredulous stare, he relented. “Okay…maybe I did mean it. But only because I’m so fucking frustrated and pissed off at myself that I let this happen to you—that I didn’t even fucking know about it, and you’d gone through this all on your own.”

“I wasn’t completely alone. Wyatt…I couldn’t bear to see you after it happened, but I was so fucking scared Dylan would come back, so…I called your brother.” She couldn’t help but cringe, knowing Keane was going to be furious—and he was. “Before you go getting angry with him, I made him promise not to tell you. It’s not his fault.”

“Are you fucking kidding me, Lil? Wyatt knew that you were beaten and raped and he didn’t bother to fucking tell me? And you don’t want me to be angry with him?” He shook his head and started to pace, every movement, every muscle, tense. “He’s just lucky that he’s in Dublin right about now.”

“It was my decision to keep this from you, Keane—not your brother’s. And don’t you think that maybe he agreed to it because he knew how you’d react?” Because right about now, Keane looked capable of murder, as he stalked the room like a wild animal caged.

“How else am I supposed to fucking react?”

It’s not that she couldn’t understand his anger, but things were different between them when it happened.

“I couldn’t tell you, Keane—and frankly, I didn’t want you to know. I didn’t want you to look at me like I was damaged, like I was some sort of idiot for getting myself into that sort of situation. And I couldn’t risk you going after Dylan and getting yourself in trouble.”

“The only one in trouble is that fucking asshole for laying a finger on you—and I’ll be sure he fucking pays for it.”

Chapter 16

Keane had never been so fucking angry before—and he’d never been so devastated. He was such a fucking asshole. If he hadn’t cheated on Lilly, they’d have still been together—and that fucking animal wouldn’t have touched her. The fact that Wyatt knew all these years and never told him…that only added to the torrent of emotions he was feeling.

“Don’t you dare, Keane.” Lilly fisted his shirt in her small hands, all but shaking him. “I need you here with me—and not locked up in jail because you went off to exact revenge.”

“And what about Wyatt? Are you trying to tell me that he was more level-headed than I am?” He couldn’t fucking believe his brother sat idly by and did nothing—and if he did, then the two of them were going to have problems far bigger than the fact that Wyatt didn’t tell him about Lilly being assaulted.

“I made him give me his word not to pursue it while I still had him on the phone, before he’d even come over. And in his defense, I don’t think he quite realized what he was agreeing to—” She let out a weary sigh that all but killed him. “Nor the severity of what had happened. So don’t be angry with him, Keane. He only did what I asked.”

“Which was to keep this from me.” He wanted to shake her until she saw sense. Didn’t she fucking understand that he would have been there for her? “You should have called
me
—not my brother, Lil.”

“How could I? Are you fucking kidding me?” Her eyes shimmered with threatening tears, but when he tried to pull her into his arms, she batted him away. “You broke my heart, Keane—
you broke me
. And at the time, my heart was a gaping hole of a raw wound—and that was under the best of circumstances. Do you know what it would have done to me to have to face you after what Dylan put me through? It would have killed me. And don’t think it was easy for me to face Wyatt either, for that matter—or anyone else.”

Fuck. He wanted to hurt the bastard, and he wanted to put his fist through a wall. Wanted to fucking go on a rampage as his rage stormed inside him. “I don’t even know what to say, Lilly. I know I fucked up by cheating on you—but this…I never could have imagined that my mistake had cost you so much.”

Was it any wonder that she’d pushed him away all those years, why she’d avoided him at all costs, why she hated him for what he’d done? He didn’t even know how to fucking deal with the emotional cluster-fuck that was brewing inside him.

“I don’t blame you for what happened to me, Keane.” But when her tears finally spilled over, he fucking hated himself for all she’d had to endure because of his failures, even if he knew Dylan was the one responsible for the abuse.

This time, when he pulled her into his arms and kissed her tears away, she let him, even if it felt like he could barely take a breath through his anger. He needed more, needed to vent his frustration and find a way back to what they had, needed the intimacy between them. Yet how could he take her after what she’d been through? He then thought of all the times in the last few days that he’d taken her rough and hard, and it fucking did him in.
He was such a fucking asshole
.

Despite all of it, they had bigger problems that required their immediate attention. Finding a way through all this would have to wait until he got her someplace safe, because if the stalker wasn’t Dylan, then they were back to not knowing who was after her. She was still in danger. “We need to get you out of here. Even if that wasn’t Dylan out in the woods, I don’t know that I can keep you safe here.”

“Are you still thinking we should go to Dublin for a bit? Or maybe someplace completely new would be best.” When her eyes clouded over, he knew she was now avoiding Dublin because of Wyatt and what happened to her—and it fucking pissed him off that she had to maneuver through her life to avoid her hurts and heartaches.

“We’re going to Dublin to see Wyatt.” Especially since he and his brother had some unfinished business to attend to—and Wyatt had a whole lot of explaining to do.

“Keane…I know that look. This is not Wyatt’s fault, so don’t go blaming him for not telling you what happened.” Her glare wasn’t swaying him any. Not in the foul mood he was in.

“That’s between me and my brother—now go pack your things. We’re leaving first thing.” As soon as he could get a plane readied. “Do you have your passport?”

“At my house—though I’m not going anywhere unless you promise me that you won’t harass Wyatt over what happened.” With her arms now crossed in front of her chest, she was certainly looking determined—not that it mattered.

“Like I said, that’s between me and Wyatt. And you are going whether it’s under your own steam or trussed like a Christmas fucking goose.” She was making him absolutely bat-shit crazy, like a madman pushed completely over the edge.

“Oh, yeah…security at the airport would just love that one. So guess again.” Her smug look made him want to ravish her into submission, made him want to fuck her until she agreed to anything he asked of her—and yet he couldn’t after all she’d been through, and it fucking pissed him the hell off. “Promise me, Keane. Promise me to leave this alone when it comes to Wyatt. The last thing I want to do is to dredge this all up again, so that he’s back to looking at me the way you’re now looking at me—like you pity me, like I’m damaged and broken, like you can’t bear to look at me, ’cause it makes you think of what Dylan did to me. But that’s why I need you to let this go. It’s bad enough to have you looking at me like that—I don’t need it from Wyatt too.”

He twined his fingers with hers, desperate to erase the pain she was going through. “That’s not how I’m looking at you, Lil. But if you think I don’t blame myself for what happened, then you’re mistaken.”

“And you’re lying. Because I can see that you want to fuck me and put me over your knee, but then you remember that some asshole fucking raped and beat me, and you’re thinking twice about wanting me.” Even the mere mention of her abuse as she spat out the words was enough to have his heart breaking all over again.

“How am I supposed to pin you to the wall and take you rough—how the fuck am I supposed to tie you up and slap your ass until you can’t fucking sit, knowing what that bastard put you through?” He sunk to his knees before her, broken, feeling like he’d failed her yet again. But then she held him to her, trying to soothe his hurt as his arms wrapped around her, and he swore to himself that he’d never let her go.

“You have to, Keane…” She ran her fingers through his hair and cupped his cheek as he looked up at her, her touch reminding her that this was about
her
—not him, not his hate, nor his pain.
Hers
. And he needed to do right by her. “The way I keep Dylan from winning is by keeping control over that part of my life. If I lose the things that give me pleasure and make me feel whole because of him, then that means he’s won. It means he has control over me—
and I’m not going to let that fucking happen
.”

Turning in to her touch, he pressed a kiss into the palm of her hand, and then stood up and scooped her into his arms, cradling her to him as he carried her to his room. She shifted out of his arms and to her feet, nuzzling him as she stole one kiss and then another, even as his head swam with thoughts of her being abused at the hands of that monster. But he had to do this…had to find his way back to what they had mere hours ago. Because there was no way he could let that fucking bastard come between them.

Knotting his fingers in her hair, he pulled her head back, his jaw tense as he fought through his emotions. “Strip down naked, and get on your knees, Lilly.”

Taking a step back, she did as he asked, removing one piece of clothing after the other as he yanked his tee up over his head and then unzipped his jeans, shifting them down over his hips and kicking them off so that they both stood there naked. He didn’t have to say another word as Lilly stroked his hard length while lowering herself to her knees, her eyes locked on his, though it left him wondering if it was so she could see that it was him and she was safe, rather than the man who’d abused her.

Fuck…he still couldn’t get his thoughts straight, couldn’t stop that fucking bastard from invading his thoughts, even if Keane knew she needed this. But then she was running her tongue up his length and along his slit with a flick, her lips wrapping around his cock, so he could do nothing but fist her hair and thrust forward so she’d take more of him with each pass.

She sucked him hard, her tongue swirling and teasing as her hands worked his shaft and stroked the soft spot behind his balls, forcing him to try to contain the building energy of his orgasm. Tightening his fist in her hair, he pulled her back to show her he was the one in control, setting the pace he wanted as he fucked her greedy mouth. “That’s it, babe…take all of it…just like that.”

Fucking hell…it was near impossible to hold back, his pace quickening as he forced her to take all of him, which she did eagerly, as if urging him on with her needy moans, the vibrations enough to push him over the edge. With a primal grunt, the energy of his orgasm broke free, his cock pulsing as he shot his cum down her throat, loving how she hungrily swallowed it, her eyes still locked on his.

He loosened the fist he had knotted in her hair so she could pull back, his cock slipping free of her red bee-stung lips as he ran his fingers down her cheek. As she stood, she slowly trailed kisses over his abs and up his chest and neck, until his mouth was hungry on hers—but only for a moment.

With his hands rough on her hips, he spun her around and shifted her onto the bed, landing a hard slap across her ass before he could give it too much thought. Now was not the time to start overthinking things. He just needed to run on pure instinct and primal desire, or his thoughts would start to get in the way.

Kneeling on the bed by her side, he let his fingers dance over her skin as he covered her back in kisses, trailing them up her spine and over her shoulders. Raking his teeth over her neck, his hand drifted down her plump ass cheeks and over her slick sex, dipping in just enough to tease her, loving how she pushed back against his hand, in search of more. “Tell me what you want, love. Tell me that you want this…that you’re mine…”

Rocking back toward his touch, his fingers slipped inside her, her sweet cunt dripping wet for him. “I want you to fuck me, Keane…and I want you to make me forget that I once wasn’t yours.”

“Babe…you’ve always been mine. Even if you didn’t know it.”