Page 81 of Kane

“You being free to be the man you are meant to be, that is enough thanks.” I rest on my forearms on his chest. “Be that man…withme. For me.”

“I can do that.” He frowns. “God, I wanna make love to you so damn bad, Anj.”

I feel my core heat. “I would like that as well.”

“Can you wait til tomorrow? Got an idea. Somewhere I’d like to bring you.”

I purse my lips. “Could you at least kiss me?”

He grins. “Yeah, babe. I can do that.”

10Healing Hurts A Little

Kane

Dawn comes, and I wake with it. I wake, but I don’t stir. Anjalee is in my arms, spooned in front of me. She’s in a shirt and panties, and nothing else. Warm, smooth legs against mine, sweet round ass nestled against me. My arm is draped over her, my hand loosely cupping her breast over her shirt.

I have morning wood so bad it hurts, but I fight it back, ignore it.

Not here, not now.

I just enjoy the moment.

For seven years, I woke up with a dark cloud over my mind, over my heart, over my soul. Hating myself. Unable to forget what I did. I’d wake up, try to ignore it, push it aside, go about my day.

Today…for the first time since that day, I wake up with that cloud gone.

I feel like a new man.

I slip out of bed carefully, leave the still-sleeping Anjalee, dress, and head into the kitchen. I smell coffee, toast, and bacon. Lilly is at the stove over a large cast iron pan, flipping bacon with a pair of tongs. She’s wearing a flannel of Luke’s, the hem hanging to upper/mid-thigh, leaving her short, thick legs bare, the front buttoned up enough to keep her decent.

She sees me, lifts up on her toes and angles toward me—out of some kind of instinct, I lean down and she kisses me on the cheek. “Good morning, Kane. Coffee’s on, toast is about to pop up, and bacon is sizzling.”

I’m a little nonplussed by her show of affection, but I have to admit…I like it.

I know the mugs are above the coffee maker, so I snag a hand-thrown ceramic mug with a wide base and a narrow mouth, pour a cup, and sit at the island. For a moment, I just watch Lilly work. The bacon flipped, she nabs the toast from the toaster, slathers butter on it, cuts it in half, repeats three more times. Puts more bread in, returns to the cast iron pan.

Luke tromps down the stairs, then, fully dressed, hat in hand—today he’s in a pale-blue button-down and light jeans. He goes to Lilly at the stove, turning her into him, a hand going under the shirt hem, kissing her. She bats away his hand with a sound of protest which he ignores, kissing her deeply.

When Luke lets her go, she looks at me, somewhat apologetically. “We’re not used to having company.”

I hide a grin behind my hand. “I’m just happy to see Luke happy.”

Luke pours himself a coffee, snags the plate of toast halves, sits at the island with me. “Lilly turned my life around. Fact is, she saved my life. I was in a bad, bad place after everything happened.” He takes a bite. “Not sure I’d be here if not for her, and I do mean that literally. I was suicidal, but I had all the hands depending on me, and I knew I couldn’t abandon them, so I sought help. Everyone I asked recommended her, so I booked an appointment.”

I stare into my coffee, throat thick. “Luke…”

He shakes his head. “Done, now, son. It’s past. Water under the bridge. Only forward, now, hear?”

I nod. “Yes, sir.”

He sips coffee. “Took more’n a year of therapy before I was able to see my way out of the dark place I was in. Kept seeing her. Kept working through shit. And then, one day, she told me she thought I was at a place where I could back off the weekly appointments. Start just living again.” He looks at her, adoration shining in his eyes. “I thought about not being able to talk to her every week, and I just couldn’t picture it. So, I asked her if I could quit the sessions entirely and take her to dinner, as friends instead of doctor and patient.”

Lilly brings the plate of bacon over and sets it on the counter. “I admit, while I was attracted to him from the get-go, physically, it took a few months for me to set aside the doctor-patient dynamic and see him just as…Luke. But once I did that?” A shrug and a smile. “Well, that was it. We were married within six months of our first date.”

“We eloped,” Luke says, grinning at me. “Neither of us got much by way of family or friends, so I left Greg in charge and me and Lilly went to Bozeman, got hitched by the justice of the peace, and spent a week in Hawaii.”

“Happy for you, Luke,” I say, clapping him on the shoulder. “Real, real happy.” I take a piece of bacon, munch on it.