Rich and Seductive: The Fraternity Brothers Series Book Three Read online

  “You think my house is old and dark?” I ask, surprised. I’ve never thought of it that way before. I’ve lived here my whole life. To me, it’s home.

  “I mean, it’s an older home. The rooms are all divided up into separate, smaller areas, and there’s not a lot of sunlight coming in anywhere.”

  “What does your house look like?”

  “Oh, it’s nothing like this. I think my entire house would fit in your bedroom. But it’s bright, and I decorated in light colors with an open concept. It’s also right on the beach. I love it. I bought it as a fixer-upper and did a lot of the work myself.”

  Her eyes are on fire with excitement. She really adores her home on the beach. “It sounds beautiful. I’d like to see it sometime.”

  “Of course, I’d love that.”

  “Would you consider moving in with me if I bought a new house, a smaller house, on the beach?”

  Her eyes widen. “Move in with you, isn’t that a little fast?”

  “I know what I want, and I want you. Why would I wait to have you around all the time?”

  “Ah, maybe because you might get sick of me and change your mind. We don’t know each other very well yet.”

  “I’ll never get sick of you.”

  “You can’t know that.”

  “I can. I do. If it wouldn’t freak you out, I’d ask you to marry me right now. I would have my jet fueled up in thirty minutes, and I would fly you anyplace in the world that you wanted to get married, and then we would go on a honeymoon. And, while we were gone, I would shop online for the most beautiful, bright, open-concept beach home in California to take you home to when our honeymoon was over.”

  Halfway through my speech, her mouth fell open, and she’s staring at me stupefied. “I, I uh, I don’t know what to say to that. I think maybe you’re insane or you’ve got permanent brain damage from your accident.”

  “Why, because I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you?”

  “No, because you love me and want to spend the rest of your life with me after only knowing me for two weeks.”

  “People make too much of a fuss about time. Why does there have to be a designated amount of time to know someone? I know all I need to know about you already. First and foremost, I know how you make me feel. I know you’re drop-dead gorgeous, intelligent, sexy, compassionate, loving, nurturing, well mannered, you don’t do drugs, you’re responsible and ethical. Did I miss anything?”

  “Actually, yes. I’m a recovering drug addict, clean for ten years. I love children, but I don’t want to have any of my own. My middle name is Freya, my favorite color is blue, and I love cats and tolerate dogs. See, I’m sure there are a couple of things on that list that might make you change your mind about wanting to marry me. And who knows, there could be more, but you won’t know until we spend more time together.”

  “Nope.”

  “Nope, what?”

  “Nope, none of those things diminish my love for you.”

  “Not even the kid thing?”

  “If kids aren’t your thing, that’s okay with me. I never saw myself having children anyway. And before you ask about the drug thing, I don’t care about that either. Everyone makes mistakes, and you’ve been clean for a long time, so it’s a non-issue. Anything else?”

  “I can’t think of anything off the top of my head,” she says quietly.

  “Good then. Let’s get dressed and go downstairs. I’ll bet Callahan has something he can whip up for dinner so that we can refuel for round two later tonight.”

  “Oh no, three times in one day is enough for you, mister. I won’t be responsible for a relapse.”

  “Tomorrow then?”

  “I can’t say no to you, so yes.”

  “You shouldn’t have told me that.”

  She sighs deeply. “Maybe not, but it’s true.”

  18

  Trinity

  Several hours and many recovered memories later, this crazy man who claims to love me is dead on his feet. The more of his life that he discovers, the harder he pushes himself. I’m starting to see a pattern here. Lennon is a workaholic.

  “You need to go to bed, you’ve had a long day.”

  “Nonsense, I spent the first half of it sleeping.”

  “You have a stubborn streak, don’t you? You’re still recovering. You need to rest.”

  “Will you come with me?” he asks, taking my hand across the table where we are sitting with dozens of photo albums open in front of us.

  “I think I’ll stay here and help Callahan put these away.”

  His frown says he’s not happy with that answer. “I need to go home and feed my cat. I can’t leave her there with no food.”

  “I thought cats were self-sufficient.”

  “Not mine, she’s spoiled with a capital ‘S.’ I don’t leave food out for her or she would weigh forty pounds. She has no off switch when it comes to eating, so I have to feed her three times a day.”

  He sighs, looking weary and defeated. “You’ll be back tomorrow?”

  “I don’t have a job to go to right now so, yes, I’ll be here.”

  “Is that the only reason you’ll be here?”

  I stifle the urge to roll my eyes and decide to mess with him a bit. “What other reason would I have to come here but to make sure you’re not overdoing it?”

  His chin drops, and his eyebrows pop up, and I burst into laughter.

  “Wild horses couldn’t keep me away from you, crazy man. I need to get to know you better in case you pop the question and sweep me away to an island to get married.”

  “So, you want an island wedding, duly noted.”

  Shaking my head, I push back my chair and stand up, placing my palms flat on the table in front of me. “I was joking, Lennon. You are incorrigible, do you know that?”

  “Because I’m a good listener, and I want to make you happy?”

  “No, because you are moving at light speed when we need to saunter.”

  He scoffs. “Sauntering isn’t my style.”

  I round the table and kiss him on the cheek. “Get used to it,” I whisper. I make to walk away, and he grabs my wrist, pulling me back down into a passionate kiss that curls my toes and wreaks havoc between my legs. I need to get out of here before he manipulates me back into bed, and Bikini starves to death.

  Panting, I stand and back away pointing my finger at him. “Not fair, we agreed no more of that today.”

  “I believe you were the one who came up with that idea, not me.”

  “That’s because I’m the only one here with any sense. I’m going to get Callahan.” I turn and leave the dining room before he can say another word.

  In the kitchen, I find Callahan sitting on a barstool at the island reading the newspaper. It’s the first time I’ve seen him relaxing since I’ve known him.

  “Hello, Callahan.” He folds his paper and places it on the island. “Oh, don’t let me interrupt you. I was just going to let you know I’m leaving for the night. Thank you for getting the photo albums for Lennon, he remembered a lot today.”

  “Good, I’m glad he’s doing better. Is he still in the dining room?”

  “Yes, I’ll help him upstairs before I go.”

  “No, you go ahead. I’ll help him. I don’t think he’ll ever let you go home if I don’t.” He smiles a knowing grin and stands.

  I close the distance between us and surprise him with a hug. He chuckles at the show of affection. “Go on, dear. I’ll get him to bed.”

  I pull away and smile, looking into the old man’s warm eyes. “Thank you.”

  “Drive safe, my dear.”

  “I will. I’ll be back tomorrow morning.”

  He pats my shoulder, and I turn to leave.

  When I pull into my driveway at home, a dark figure is sitting on my front stoop. For a moment, I consider backing out until the person stands, and I recognize her in the light of the moon. It’s Kelly, and she’s crying.

  Draw
ing in a deep breath, I shut off the car and open the door. Lord grant me patience to deal with this woman.

  “Kelly, what do you wan…” I stop short. Her shirt is torn, she has a black eye, and it looks as if a chunk of her hair is missing from one side of her head. “What happened to you?” I ask, instantly switching to nurse mode assessing her injuries.

  “I didn’t know where to go. You were at the party last night, and I saw you come here, and I had to go somewhere he wouldn’t know to look for me. Please, I need help.” Her words rush out in a frenzy of fear and anxiety.

  “Shush, who is he?”

  “BJ,” she whispers, covering her mouth to stifle a sob.

  “Come inside and get some ice for that eye.” I unlock the door and guide her into my house. Kelly Striker is one houseguest I never in a million years thought to be entertaining. I can’t turn her away when she’s injured, no matter who she is.

  “Did he do this to you?”

  She nods, and I switch on the light and lock the door. Bikini shoots across the room to weave in and out of my legs, causing Kelly to yelp. “It’s okay. It’s just my cat. She’s harmless. Well, mostly harmless except when she’s hungry, and she’s probably really hungry.” I guide Kelly into my kitchen and turn on that light as well. Bikini hops up onto the island as I examine Kelly’s eye. “Are there any other injuries?” I ask.

  She holds out her arms to show me two perfect purple hand prints around her wrists. When she takes them away, she wraps one arm around her waist and places the other hand on her belly as if to protect it.

  “We need to call the police. You can’t let him get away with this.”

  “No, please don’t. It’ll only make it worse. I don’t have anywhere to go, and he knows how to find me.”

  “Why did he do this?” I ask, tugging the top off of a can of cat food and setting it under Bikini’s face, so she’ll stop meowing and pawing at my arm. I set about making an ice pack for her eye.

  “He’s angry that I won’t keep messing with Lennon.”

  “Messing with him how?”

  “Telling him we were engaged, and that I’m pregnant and…”

  I frown and stop in front of her, holding the ice pack. “And what?”

  Tears run down her cheeks, cutting a path through her thick makeup. “It was us.”

  I turn my head sideways and give her a puzzled look.

  “It was us who cut the mast on his yacht. BJ wanted to rob Lennon, and he thought if he were in the hospital, it would be an easy in and out of his house. I didn’t want to do it, but I was sick, and BJ said he would help me if I got him on the yacht.”

  “Sick how?” I hand her the ice, and she gently places it on her swollen eye.

  “Can I sit down?” she asks, and I nod toward a chair in the living room. She eases herself into the chair, and I wonder how many other bruises are hidden under her skirt and blouse.

  “When we got out of college, I had a manic episode. I’m bipolar, and I sort of went off the rails. I left Lennon and got involved with a bad crowd.” She looks at her feet, and a tear splashes onto the hardwood floor.

  “Drugs,” I say knowingly.

  “Yeah.”

  “How long have you known you were bipolar?”

  “A couple years now. My parents made me see a shrink when they couldn’t get me out of bed my sophomore year to go to school. They put me on meds, and after a couple of years, I felt better, so I quit taking them.”

  A very typical scenario for people with mental illnesses. I’ve seen it a million times in my profession. “You know now that you can’t do that, right? The meds keep you balanced, but if you don’t take them, they can’t do their job.”

  “Yeah, learned that a little too late. Now I’m pregnant and hooked on smack with a psycho boyfriend who wants me to ruin my ex’s life and steal from him.”

  So, she is pregnant, after all. Please don’t let it be Lennon’s baby.

  “Okay, let’s start with your physical injuries first. Is there anything that needs stitching up? Do you have a headache?” I lower my eyes to her abdomen. “Are you bleeding?” I ask quietly.

  “I don’t think so. Oh my God, I didn’t even think to check.” She jumps up looking around like a caged animal for the bathroom.

  “It’s through there,” I say, pointing down the hall. She rushes away and closes the door. I wait and think about who to call. She needs an OB, drug treatment, and a safe place to get away from this BJ guy. I should also call the police. Lennon’s accident wasn’t an accident after all. How much of that was BJ, and how much was Kelly? Shit, I need help.

  I grab my phone and send a text to Fiona.

  Me: My house STAT. Someone is in trouble.

  She wastes no time responding.

  Fiona: You?

  Me: No, believe it or not, Kelly.

  Fiona: What the actual fuck?

  Me: It’s too much to explain. Just come please.

  Fiona: Okay.

  All of this is starting to make sense now. It’s always bothered me that Lennon, a kind and caring man, dated a skank like Kelly. She probably used to be a good person before she went off her meds and got sucked into a world of drugs with an asshole boyfriend like BJ.

  No wonder Lennon doesn’t remember her. She’s nothing like the woman he used to know.

  Kelly exits the bathroom and joins me. “No bleeding.”

  “That’s good news. Are you cramping?”

  “No. I do have a nasty cut on my shoulder, though.”

  She sits down on the ottoman, and I carefully pull her blouse away from her shoulder. She has a four-inch-long gash that looks like a knife caused it. “Did he cut you with a knife?” I ask.

  “No, he pushed me down. I must have cut it on something in the garage.”

  “I have a suture kit and some lidocaine. I’ll fix it unless you’d rather go to the hospital.”

  “No. No hospitals, please. He will look for me there.”

  “Kelly, we need to call the police. If you think he’s going to come after you again, you have to turn him in.”

  “He will rat me out about Lennon’s yacht. He’ll say it was all my idea, and I’ll go to jail. I can’t have my baby in jail. Please don’t make me go to jail,” she begs with a sob.

  “Okay, I won’t call. We need to get you somewhere safe, though. He might think to look for you here if he’s friends with Bodhi and Star.”

  “He’s not. Friends I mean. He knows them, but they aren’t friends.”

  “Kelly?”

  She looks up from her feet. “Yeah?”

  “Whose baby is it?”

  Her eyes well with tears. “I don’t know. It could be Lennon’s or BJ’s.”

  “Are there any other contenders?”

  “No. I’m not the whore everybody thinks I am. I flirt and party, but I never slept with anyone but Lennon and BJ, I swear.”

  My heart sinks. I was convinced she was lying about the pregnancy as well as the engagement. What if the baby is Lennon’s? Will he want to be a part of its life? Will he want to get back together with Kelly when she is back on her medication? Will her years of history with him trump my two short weeks?

  Do I really want to know the answer to those questions? No. Not right now. Right now, I need to help this woman get help.

  “Kelly, what exactly was your part in the yacht incident?” I ask as I retrieve the suture kit from my bathroom.

  “I told him which slip it was in and when Lennon was usually there.”

  I return to the living room where Bikini has woofed down her food and is now sitting at Kelly’s feet checking her out. “That’s it? You weren’t with him when he tampered with the mast?”

  “No, he went alone at night.”

  “It would be pretty easy to deny to the police that you had any involvement.”

  “BJ would never let me get away with not taking some of the responsibility.”

  I set up my supplies next to Kelly on a table and scoop Bikin
i up to shut her in my bedroom while I work. She’s unhappy, to say the least, meowing and jabbing her paws under the door. “Sorry baby, I’ll let you out in a few minutes.”

  “Do you have a criminal record?” I ask when I return and begin to apply disinfectant to the cut. She flinches and sucks in a breath.

  “No, I got into some trouble as a teenager, but my parents took care of it.”

  “How about BJ?”

  “Yeah, he has a couple of things on file.”

  “Like what?”

  “Drunk driving, public intox, theft, and probably some other stuff I don’t know about.”

  “We’re calling the police. You will deny any involvement in Lennon’s incident if it’s brought up, and BJ will go to jail for what he’s done to you. Your clean record will speak for itself, and the fact that you’re pregnant will make it worse for him.”

  I inject lidocaine around the cut, and she flinches again. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay.”

  She’s quiet as I stitch her up. The only sound in the room is Bikini fussing in my bedroom until there’s a knock at my door. Kelly stiffens and looks around for a place to hide.

  “It’s him, he found me,” she whimpers.

  “No, it’s Fiona. I called her.” I step away to answer the door. When I open it, Fiona gives me a what-the-hell look, and I shrug. “I couldn’t leave her on my front step bleeding.”

  Her eyes widen. “Uh, yeah, you could have.”

  “You don’t know the whole story, come inside.” She rolls her eyes letting out a deep sigh as if to say I’m the most naive person alive.

  Kelly looks up, and Fiona stops in her tracks. “What the hell happened to you?”

  Kelly doesn’t respond. She just looks down at her feet. “First of all, is it okay that I explain things to Fiona?” I ask Kelly, and she nods without looking up. “Kelly was diagnosed as bipolar two years ago, and she’s been off her meds. She got involved with some bad people and now that she’s trying to get her life back on track because she’s pregnant, her boyfriend BJ is hurting her.”

  Fiona closes her eyes and shakes her head. “Bipolar? You never mentioned that to any of us, Kelly.”