Kane (Members From Money Book 9) Read online

  “So, I take it the answer is yes,” Sally said smugly, knowing that as much as the girl appeared to be tough and did not give a fig about a lot of things, she had a soft heart when it came to giving back to the less fortunate.

  “Yes, and Sally?”

  “Yes, darling?”

  “Do not try that with me again. You get only one free pass. I am on a mission to settle down and make a family.”

  “I will believe that when I see it,” Sally said before hanging up.

  Kelly lay on the carpeted floor of her small gym for a moment and then got up in one fluid movement. She had turned the air conditioner off inside the well-equipped room to get the full effect of the workout. She had had her agent buy the apartment for her when she had decided that she was coming back home and she had seen pictures of it online and had fallen in love with the compact three bedrooms and two baths with a deck around the back and a patio in front. The kitchen was ultramodern, but as much as she admired the modern amenities, she was not one to cook and preferred to order in or go out to dinner. Paris had spoiled her in that area and also the no-good Jean Pierre, she thought darkly. The bathroom was what had really sold her on the place. It was a cool lavender and pale pink room which was girlish, but she loved it! There was a huge sunken bath, a shower install large enough for five people, and mirrors all around. She had put a small antique table near the bath and filled it with magazines, most of which had her posed on the front wearing nothing more than two-piece lace underwear or some lace peignoir. She had no hang ups where her body was concerned and knew how good she looked.

  Her phone rang again and she thought about ignoring it, wondering if it was Sally again, but it was Leesa.

  “We are having a barbecue at my place on Saturday. I expect you to be there,” she said briskly.

  “Thank you for asking,” Kelly drawled, her tone insolent. “I cannot wait to meet that scrumptious husband of yours in person and ask him how he puts up with your pushy ways.”

  “My husband loves me to pieces. And, Kelly, please dress in actual clothes. I happen to have two sons who are very impressionable and a daughter who is determined to go into modeling.”

  “So, what’s wrong with that?” Kelly demanded. “It has done very well for us.”

  “And we had to fight and stand up for ourselves all the way,” Leesa reminded her.

  “I am sure any child of yours will do the same,” she said dryly. “And for your information, I have clothes that can be considered to be modest.”

  “You do not know the meaning of the word, darling.”

  “You are right.” Kelly scoured her head, trying to remember what she had in the vast closets in two of the bedrooms that could be considered to be appropriate. “Since when have you become this woman who cares what she is wearing?”

  “Since I became a wife and mother. You will find out what I mean someday. I have invited some single members of Brad’s club for you to meet if you are interested.”

  “Lord, it sounds as if I am shopping for shoes,” Kelly groaned.

  “As I recall, you take your time when you are shopping for shoes.”

  “You are right. I have seen your place in the magazines and must say you have done amazingly well when choosing husbands and homes.”

  “I have the best,” Leesa said smugly. “My Brad satisfies me in every way.”

  “Okay, fine, bitch, stop trying to make me feel like crap with your perfect man and children,” Kelly said mildly. “Want me to bring anything?”

  “Kelly, I have not seen you in four years, but I happen to know that you cannot even boil water. You would be doing everyone a favor if you did not bring anything,” Leesa told her with a laugh.

  “Such a shame too because I have this marvelous kitchen just waiting to be used,” Kelly said with a grin. “Okay, darling, I will just bring my fine self and nothing else. Oh, and by the way, it appears I will not be hanging up my lingerie just yet. I will tell you when I see you.”

  Chapter 2

  Kelly climbed out of the Ferrari and handed the keys to the admiring valet with a smile. She took a moment to enjoy the fresh country air and the scent of flowers vying for supremacy. It was the middle of June, and she could not believe that it had been a month since she had gotten back. There were vehicles parked in designated spots and she started off to the sounds of laughter and music around the corner of the elegant two story building. The place was crawling with adults and children, and the large blue swimming pool with the water cascading from the rocks had a few people already in, frolicking and splashing around. Kelly had put on fitted denim shorts with a large tear in the left side of it, showing glimpses of her coffee and cream thigh. Her designer blue and white blouse was tied at the front and revealed inches of flesh. Her short blonde curls were gleaming with the mixture of coconut cream and Shea butter she had rubbed into them. She had on dangling blue earrings and bracelets all over her left arms. She had decided against wearing heels and had put on flat strappy sandals that tied up almost to her knees. She took off her shades as she came closer and that was when Leesa and the other wives saw her. “Come on over!” Leesa said, beckoning to her.

  She ignored the admiring gazes of some of the men present and went over to where they were.

  “So, how is this?” she asked, spreading her hands out for Leesa to get the full effect of what she had on.

  “Halfway decent,” she responded with a grin. She was wearing a sarong-style red and blue dress that tied around her neck. The others were either in shorts and t-shirts or dresses with thin straps. “Darling, over here!” she beckoned to the tall handsome man with the ash blonde hair who was standing by one of the grills. “This is Kelly.”

  “If only I had seen you before Leesa, I would have been Mrs. Wellington instead of her.” To his surprise, she ignored the hand he held out and came and kissed him full on the lips.

  He blinked and looked at his wife furtively before looking back at the smiling woman in front of him.

  “I hope there was no tongue involved,” Leesa said darkly, taking her husband’s arm. “I told you she is worse than me.”

  “I did not believe you then,” Brad said, recovering his composure. “Nice to meet you, Kelly.”

  “You will be seeing a lot more of me, darling. By the way, did your wife tell you I am on the lookout for a husband?”

  Brad stared at the woman in shock. “No, that did not come up.”

  “Well, I am, so let me know. Okay, where are those beautiful kids?”

  She had enormous fun! She was introduced to all the husbands and the children. The more she spent around the group of them and saw how they were around one another, the more she realized that it was something that she wanted. She saw easy familiarity and intimacy when Patrick Copeland bent to kiss Carrie on her lips before taking their children out into the pool and when Andre Wainwright held his wife around her waist as he came up behind her. There was the moment when Deandre was in the pool and her darkly handsome husband Mikhail lifted her up and brought her back down, taking her lips with his, not caring that there were people around! It was everywhere! The feeling of love and intimacy emanating from them. The men had given her admiring looks because she happened to be a very beautiful woman and was very visible, but very quickly they would turn back to their wives. The single men she had seen there had not enticed her. One of them whom she thought was a suitable candidate had turned out to be a disappointment.

  He had come up to her after she had come out of the pool in her teal blue bathing suit and had just sat on one of the lounge chairs and closed her eyes. “I have been waiting to speak to you all afternoon,” the deep voice said over her.

  She opened her eyes and squinted up at him, her heart quickening as she saw how attractive he was. “What stopped you?” she asked him, never one to be shy.

  He took a seat on the opposite chaise lounge and smiled at her. He had black hair slightly tinted with grey at the sides and dark brown eyes. He was heavily tanned with a slightly crooked nose. Kelly remembered that he had been introduced to her by Brad and his name was Larry Corrington, CEO and owner of some software company.

  “Your admirers,” he admitted as he passed a tall icy glass of lemonade to her. Leesa and the others had gone to tend to the children and she had taken the time to just relax and get some sun. “I noticed you from the moment you walked in here. I have always admired you in the magazines. You are even more beautiful in person.”

  “Thank you, kind sir,” she said, flashing a smile at him as she pulled up her knees and rested the glass on top of them. “So, where is your significant other?” she asked, looking around.

  “I am single and looking for someone to share my life with.”

  “You sound like a dating site,” she teased, liking the easy conversation between them. Usually men were intimated by the fact that she modeled underwear for a living and were usually tongue tied around her. Larry did not seem to be that way.

  “I have been on several,” he admitted sheepishly, his eyes drawn to her breasts that were revealed over the scrap of material she was wearing.

  “How are you doing so far?” She sipped her lemonade delicately as she looked at him. He had a certain charm that was somewhat appealing.

  “I have been out with about twelve women and all they want to know is how much money my company makes.”

  “Oh dear.” She had finished her lemonade and put the glass on the table beside her. “Ever been married?”

  “Two times.” He saw the expression on her face and laughed softly. “I usually wait until the fourth date before I bring that up.”

  “Well, technically this is not a date,” she reminded him. “And you must have a perfectly logical reason to purchase two sets of wedding rings.”

  He laughed out loud at that, causing heads to turn to them. “The first time was when I was too young to realize what I was doing and the second was when I was too in lust.”

  “And this time you have a feeling it is going to be the right one?” Kelly lifted tapered brows at him.

  “I have a feeling that this time will be my last,” he said softly as he looked at her. “Right now, I want to take you somewhere and slip my dick inside you and screw the daylight out of you.” He had turned into an entirely different person and she suddenly knew why he was having such difficulty finding a woman.

  “Thanks for that indelicate offer, but I like having the daylight in me as you put it.” Her eyes raked him coolly, causing him to regret what he had just said. “I am a black woman with an attitude and more than enough brains to go around. I also happen to be an independent woman and experienced enough not to be turned on by trashy talk and come ons, so if you’ll excuse me?” She got up gracefully and walked away from him with his eyes following as she went to one of the diving boards and dived cleanly in. He sat there and looked as she broke the surface, laughing as one of the kids splashed water in her face. The next time he saw her, she was sitting with the wives, talking and eating food off of a paper plate.

  *****

  Kane let himself into his spotlessly clean utilitarian penthouse suite and went straight to the kitchen. He ignored the meal in the warmer that his daily housekeeper had left for him and poured himself a glass of Pinot Grigio, taking it with him to the impressively large living room. He was not much into watching television and usually he would go to the club to engage in some of the games that were going on for the summer, but he was not in the mood for it. His on-and-off girlfriend had invited him to dinner at the restaurant, but he had told her that he would not make it. He just wanted to be alone.

  He settled back against the cushions and his eyes wandered to the portrait above the mantel. Akio and Akemi Takahashi, his parents. His mother portrayed the gentle demeanor that she had been known for and had always known her place, never raising her voice or resorting to arguing with her husband. His father had been stern but fair and had told him that it was his place to carry on the Takahashi’s name and bear a son that looked like them. He never had any use for ‘Western women’ and their loose ways as he put it and would never tolerate his son being with one of them. Even in high school, when the girls of different ethnic backgrounds had thrown themselves at him, he had stuck to his own kind and had taken his first woman at the age of twenty. He was Japanese and even though he had been born and raised in the States, he had acquired a lot of the culture from his parents. He had been instructed in the art of making love when he was thirteen years old. His father had secured the services of a Japanese woman of the night to teach him how to please a woman and he had learned on his own as well. He had taken Akiko to bed one night after they had been going out for close to six months, and in his skillful, clinical way, he had brought her to her peak over and over again, leaving her weak and weeping without being touched himself. He had been able to get his orgasm finally after putting some effort into it and after he had stopped thinking about the stock portfolio that had been sitting on his desk.

  He was restless and had no idea what he was searching for! He drained the glass and went on to his bedroom, going into the plain black and white bedroom to take a shower!

  ******

  “One more, baby, and then that’s it,” Bryce coaxed as Kelly made to stop. The music was blaring and the sun was shining down onto the plain wooden deck where they were going through the dance routine. It was close to the end of June and she was doing some heavy training in anticipation of strutting on stage at the huge open air show in the town square. Her body glistened with sweat and every bone in her body felt as if they were on fire. She was getting too old for this, she thought, as she did the twist and walked the length of the deck then back again.

  “Bryce, I am stopping even if you do not call a halt,” she said, huffing out a breath. She flopped down on one of the lounge chairs fanning herself with her hands. “Pour me a drink of lemonade, darling, or I am going to die right here.”

  Bryce did her bidding and brought the glass to her. “You did very well. You are going to knock them dead as usual,” he said with a grin, his black face glistening with sweat. He was thickly muscled and was wearing a tight Lycra shorts that revealed his impressive crotch. She had learned to ignore that part of him because he was as gay as they come!

  Kelly stretched out her long legs and looked at a tiny chip on her otherwise perfectly aquamarine painted big toe. “I am hanging everything up after this,” she murmured.

  “Honey, no!” he exclaimed as he sat on the chair next to her. “You were made for this crap.”

  Kelly smiled in delight at his language and the way he put it. “I want something more, Bryce.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like a good man, a man who can make me sing and shiver when he makes love to me. A man who will not look at me and see just another beautiful woman he can screw and forget about until the next time.”

  “Honey, no man will ever be able to forget you,” Bryce told her staunchly. “You are the most unforgettable woman I have ever known, both you and Leesa. What is it with the two most beautiful women in the world wanting to put down roots?”

  “I need something like she has.” She told him about the barbecue she had been to and the happiness and contentment she had seen there. “These people are not pretending, Bryce; they have found the real thing.”

  Bryce sighed, leaning back as he allowed the music to wash over him. “One can only hope for something like that. Have you found anyone close yet?”

  Kelly shook her head and laughed as she told him about her conversation with Larry from the party.

  “Okay, leisure time is over. Let’s get me looking even more gorgeous than I already am!”

  ******

  “Dad, I thought you were feeling better.” Kelly cradled the phone between her ear and shoulder as she set about repairing the damage done to her toe. She had an appointment with her usual nail person but that was not until next week and she dreaded going out in public with chipped nail polish. She had wanted to go out to dinner, but she was feeling pummeled and tired so she had decided to order Thai food and stay in.

  “Your father is getting too old to keep up with this lifestyle, honey,” Alton Boothe said wryly. “Kaila has been at me to exercise and get my paunch down, but I have been telling her it comes with age and I am not a young man anymore.”

  “I am sure she was aware of that when she married you,” Kelly said caustically.

  “Come now, honey, you promised that you would be nice to her.”

  “And I have been, but I am not talking to her now so I can thrash her behind her back.”

  “She is still my wife, honey.”

  “My mother is your wife,” she corrected. “The others are just props you collected to try and make you feel young again.”

  “How is she?” he asked, choosing to ignore her statement.

  “Why don’t you call her and find out? She said you are the one who does not call, Dad. What happened? Are you on a tight leash?”

  “You don’t understand, baby girl,” he said with a sigh. “I made the mistake of comparing Kaila to her, and she is still not forgiving me for that slip.”

  “Oh, the little wife feeling insecure?”

  “Kelly, darling, I did not call for you to disrespect both of us. I read on the internet that you are involved in some big 4th of July show. I thought you said you were done with the whole thing.”

  “The whole thing as you called it happens to be my career,” she reminded him. “I am just doing this last one and then I am finished.”

  “I wish you would come over and spend a week or two with us.”

  “Dad, you know how I feel about your wives. I can stomach them for a few minutes but to spend any amount of time with them gives me the shivers and not in a good way.” Kelly put away the bottle of nail polish and stretched her foot out, looking at the effect.

  “I have no idea where your meanness comes from,” he complained.

  “From Mom. Who else? I have to go, Dad, feel better,” she said, hanging up on him.