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Kendall smiles fondly at the memory. “I remember that. I was hoping they would leave me alone if I threw your name in there. I was scared shitless. And then you showed up.”
“I couldn’t very well let them beat the stubborn little girl who kept sneaking her own bread to me when I was sent to bed without dinner.” I walk over to her and use my fingers to lift her chin up to meet her gaze. “I never intended to leave you, Kendall. You must know that. I promised you that when I got out, I would make a home for us. I just never imagined that Skinner would pin me with something and toss me in prison. He had to save his own skin, so he blamed me. I was pretty much homeless at that point, the money given to me hadn’t been sufficient to even survive.”
Kendall wraps her hands around my wrist, not pulling it away, not pulling herself away either, her eyes searching mine. “How did you get out?”
It doesn’t escape me that she’s much more willing to let me touch her now that she knows who I am. It makes me wonder whether I misjudged her reaction.
I rub my thumb over her lower lip, fascinated by how her hazel eyes darken at the gesture, and I murmur, “I started planning, changed lawyers. Till then, I had a state appointed attorney. This new lawyer was a younger one. He was fresh, eager, determined, fucking brilliant. You’ve met him.”
“Lucas,” she breathes out, her eyes widening.
I allow a small smile to play on my lips.
“But he told me you two were introduced by Lana.”
“That’s the story he and I prefer to use. Lana doesn’t know. Nobody knows except for the two of us, and now you. We went our separate ways after he cleared my name. Then, I decided to sue the FBI, and I called on him again. He bled them dry,” I say with grim satisfaction. “And I used my initial freedom to move about wary of Skinner’s people hunting me down. I gathered enough evidence on them, things I knew my father had kept to save his own skin, and the Lucas helped me put Skinner behind bars, and half the people that were dug out.”
Kendall looks at me with awe. “You must have been in your early twenties.”
“And you had been newly released from the home,” I say, unable to stop touching her, my hands moving to her hair where I start dragging out pin after pin, slowly. “I went there once I was settled. But Marie never let me in. She refused to divulge anything and told me to leave you alone.”
“She always did hate you.”
“Do you?” The question is forced from me, despite the evidence that she’s welcoming me into her arms.
“Do I hate you?” she repeats, staring at me. Now, she pushes my hands away from her frowns as she runs her fingers through her hair which I’ve deliberately undone and is now tumbling over her shoulders. She stares at me. “I’m upset that you lied to me. I’m upset that you manipulated me.”
“That was on both sides, sweetness,” I point out, the endearment rolling off my tongue easily.
She gives me a reluctant smile. “Maybe. But I don’t understand why you thought I would still turn my back on you after you told me all this.” She tugs at the end strands of her hair. “I don’t understand, what you want with me, despite the fact that you now have everything you could ever desire.”
“Not everything, Kendall,” I correct her. “I don’t have you, yet.”
“But why do you want me?” Her face is an open book, displaying her emotions, lost, wary, shaken. “I can’t offer you anything.”
My heart trembles with the force of my emotions as I watch her sit there, expecting me to demand something in return for everything I’ve given her, for what I want to give her yet. I find myself kneeling before her. “You gave me a second chance. You taught me to trust again, to love again. I told you, all this, this empire that I’ve built, it’s for you. I just want you. I’ve always wanted you.”
Her eyes shimmer and there’s a crack in her voice as she speaks, “What…about that woman, then? Reina Sheffield. You took her out to dinner and then…”
“And that’s all I did,” I admit, feeling lousy. “I was trying to piss you off. I was angry over what you’d said. Besides, Reina is… I’m assisting her with a family matter. She knows I’m not interested in her—”
The slap on my face makes me blink at the sting.
“Now, I feel better.” Kendall sounds satisfied. “Asshole.”
I put my hands on both sides of her hips, and loom over her. “That hurt.”
“Good.”
“Are you going to kiss it better?”
She gives me a prim look. “I don’t kiss my boss.”
“You did before.”
She gives me a long look. “I was drunk.”
“Liar,” I say lightly and kiss her on the nose, making her cross her eyes. “Kiss it better.”
