Surrender (The Forbidden Series Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

that’s how I’m always going to think of it. It’s how I need to think of it.
    ‘We’re gonna be OK, Helen. And I’m sorry, if I’ve been distant and cold towards you lately, I’m just…’
    She shuts me up with a kiss and I rest my hand in the small of her back, keeping her pressed against me. ‘We’re gonna be OK. And that’s all I need to know, Neal.’
    I smile again, and she returns it, and I really am starting to feel like this could go somewhere now. But, like I said, there are still one or two hurdles to get over. And they can’t be ignored. If she wants me, then she has to take all of me, and that includes the club owner as well as the art dealer. I’m both men now. And if she can’t deal with that, then we might still have a problem.
     
     
    Kira
     
    ‘Hello, Kate.’
    I can’t say anything. Another piece of my past has turned up out of the blue; it’s found me, and I don’t know what to say; what to do. I want to ask what he’s doing here, now, after all this time, but no words are coming. Not yet.
    ‘Not much of a welcome you’re giving me here, I have to say.’
    ‘Why now, Kris? What are you doing here, now?’
    ‘Dad sent me, Kate.’
    ‘Stop calling me that.’
    ‘It’s your name.’
    ‘It used to be my name.’
    He leans over the bar and reaches out to tuck a strand of hair that’s fallen loose from my ponytail back behind my ear. ‘They know, Kate. What he did to you. They know.’
    I take his hand and pull it away from me, looking behind me to see where Jon is. I need him now, to help me deal with this because I’m not sure how long I can keep up the calm exterior I’m trying so hard to show. ‘How did you find me?’
    He looks down and picks up a coaster, turning it over and over between his fingers, his eyes fixed on the bar. ‘Let’s just say, your past caught up with you.’
    I’m so confused I can’t think straight, and I just want Jon, I want him here, I need him. Here. ‘What…? What are you talking about?’
    ‘Look, Kate, I’m… I’m not here to scare you or upset you. I’m your brother… and I know I… we shouldn’t have left things the way we…’
    ‘You come looking for me now ?’
    I’m angry. That’s the overriding emotion I’m feeling here. Anger. I ran because a man they pushed me towards hurt me in a way I still struggle to take in, and nobody even tried to make contact, to see how I was; to find out why I really ran. And I know I did my best to make it difficult for anyone to find me, but the fact they didn’t even try… My own brother. Did they really care so little? All those years I didn’t let it bother me. Whatever they’d felt; whatever they’d believed, it hadn’t bothered me. It bothers me now.
    ‘Things were very different then. You have to believe me.’
    ‘I have to believe nothing ,’ I hiss, leaning forward so my face is right up in his. My brother. The one man I’d always looked up to, until even he showed me how little he really cared about me.
    He steps back from the counter, but his eyes never leave mine. ‘I’m sorry, Kate. Really, I am, because if we’d known…’
    ‘You’d, what? Have been on my side? Believed what I’d said? Taken my word over his?’ I shake my head, and still my gaze never leaves his. ‘No, you wouldn’t. You wouldn’t have done that…’
    ‘Kate…’
    ‘ Stop calling me that. Please, Kris…’ I take a long, deep breath and quickly glance around the bar. Everyone’s continuing to eat their lunch and enjoy their drinks and that’s good, I don’t want anyone here to know that my whole other life has invaded this one. ‘Come on. Let’s do this somewhere more private.’
    He follows me behind the bar and down the corridor that leads out into the back yard which is, thankfully, free of anyone else at the minute. We’re alone, but that won’t last for long. People come out here all the time, and I’m not ready to explain just who Kris is right now. Not yet.
    I close the