AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Burke’s question plagued me, of course. I felt it in my chest, that fluttering of my heart like a million birds were being let out of a cage. I supposed that analogy was close to the truth as it could be. I’d caged my heart. I didn’t know if the thought of the job or the man was making it free itself.
I came upon a high gate, but it opened without me having to push the button of the callbox that was near the gate. I rolled through and watched in my rearview how it slowly moved closed again once I was completely through.
How rich did someone have to be to have a gate like that? Maybe I was misjudging when people said Kendrick was rich. I thought, hell, even Damon and Burke had a nice, huge place in that beautiful valley. They weren’t rich in the usual sense.
It seemed Kendrick was.
I’d been wealthy enough when I was younger. My parents had left a nice bit of savings for me to live on and use for schooling, but that had gone quickly when I was in my party-the-memories-away phase. That and tuition, that was, but mostly the partying. When I got with Jeffery, I had a decent job, but I quit that to become a full-time boyfriend and submissive. I didn’t regret it until Jeffery broke up with me.
I shook that thought away and drove the long, winding driveway until the house came into view, although house was not the right word for the place. It was a mansion. A real, big, beautiful mansion, disguised as a cabin.
Three stories tall, made of redwood logs the size of my car, windows so tall they reflected the entire mountain where they faced. A deck ran around each of the upper floors with evergreen and flowering bushes surrounding the house on the ground floor.
It was beautiful, but when the man himself came out of the front door, and I exited my car, my stomach did a flip and answered the question Burke had raised.
It wasn’t the job…
Chapter Four
Kendrickcamedownthethree long steps that lay between the short, perfectly trimmed juniper bushes and greeted me with an extended hand. “So glad you found the place.”
I shook his hand, and it could have been my imagination, but the handshake was lingering, and when he let go of me, I thought I saw reddening over his nose and high cheeks.
“GPS saves me every time.”
“Right, right. Well, my son is ready to meet you, but I must warn you, he’s opposed to this. I explained you are a tutor of sorts, helping him establish some skills for…you know, the outside world.”
“I can relate some. I mean, my folks sent me to boarding schools because they were always traveling for their careers. That’s all I knew for a long time, those schools or motel rooms. That was technically the outside world, but I was very sheltered by them.”
“Before they…passed. I’m truly sorry about that, Kanan. That can’t have been easy for someone so young.”
His eyes shined at me, and I felt low, seeing him for more than just a good man, a good dad that worried for his child. Still, he’d stuck it out, two kids, raising them, dealing with the death of one wife, the abandonment of another. That didn’t make me want him less.
Maybe that was it. He stuck it out, but did I want a man that simply stuck it out, or did I want one that truly wanted to be there? Confusion gripped me again.
He led me into the house, and it was surprisingly warm and welcoming. Most mansions I’d seen were cold and perfect, but right off, I saw a wall filled with pictures of the two boys, toys on the floor near the entrance, big yellow trucks, and teddy bears.
In the main living room, the furniture was all leather, but throw pillows were scattered on the cushions and the floor, and the huge glass coffee table was filled with papers.
“Excuse the clutter. The maid comes twice a week, and it’s obvious today is not one of those days.”
“You have a little kid,” I excused. “And more than one important job.”
“Thank you, yes.”
His smile could light a city block, and those eyes shining the way they did each time they turned my way. I wanted to read so much into that, but I refrained as much as I could.
As he started to pick up the toys, Colby came into the room, and when he saw what his father was doing, became indignant. “Daddy! I was playin’ with those!”
Kendrick stopped and stood upright slowly. “Oops. Busted.”
Colby giggled and then saw me. “Hi,” he said rather shyly, then went to his faster, wrapping an arm around Rick’s leg. “Who are you?”
“This is Kanan, honey. Remember from when we went to the diner to eat the other day?”
He examined me closely. “Oh. Wanna play?” he asked me.
“Sure, yeah.”
