Secret Words (Secret Dreams Contemporary Romance 1) (6 page)

"They'll probably want me to leave soon," the woman said conspiratorially. "I'm finished and there are people waiting for a table."

Jasmine looked up and saw a couple standing near the door, pointedly looking their way.

"Hey, if you don't want to leave yet, you're welcome to share my table," she offered.

"Oh, is that okay with you?"

"Of course. You seem to love books and shopping. There'll be plenty of things for us to talk about." Jasmine hoped she would stay. She missed her friends back home and this lady reminded her of them.

"Great, thanks," the woman responded as she gathered her bags and moved to her table.

"I'm Jasmine Allen, by the way," she said.

"Arielle Mitchell. But you can call me Ari."

Jasmine thoroughly enjoyed the next hour spent in a pleasant conversation with her new friend Ari. She learned that Ari just broke up with her cheating boyfriend and turned to shopping for comfort. They had the same taste in clothes. They also liked the same books, including J.A. Nell's.

"We should meet up again, Jaz," Ari said as they walked out of the café.

"I'd love that. When are you available?" she asked.

"If you don't mind catching up here in the city, I could meet you during lunchtimes on the weekdays," Ari said.

"That would be great! How about next Monday?"

"Sure. I'll meet you out here at twelve?"

"Perfect."

Jasmine went home feeling buoyant about having made a new friend. She could already imagine herself telling Ari who J.A. Nell really was.

*******

Four days had passed and there wasn't a single peep out of Tim. Jasmine had started to relax. Maybe Tim had gotten bored or scared or had lost hope. Whatever. As long as he'd finally left her alone.

It must have been Kane's constant coming and going—and sleeping over at nights—that convinced Tim there was no way he could get what he wanted. Fingers crossed, she'd seen the last of him.

She must concede though that, in a way, Tim had done her a favour. If it hadn't been for his weird and worrying behaviour, she wouldn't have been spending so much time with Kane.

Kane had been so sweet. He'd been coming for at least an hour during the day and when he wasn't there, he'd called to make sure she was fine. They'd been having dinners together, too.

She loved it when he came 'home'. They'd been spending the evenings cuddled in front of the TV while they talked and kissed. The TV programmes served as distractions—and reminders—not to take things any further for the time being.

She sighed with longing. She knew it was selfish of her but she couldn't help but get excited about being free to fully express her desire for Kane. It was so difficult to hold back.

She was just as keen as Kane to set the record straight with Hannah. She did feel sorry that Hannah would have to go through another loss but it would be more cruel if Kane pretended there was hope for the two of them when there was absolutely none. Better that Kane didn't lift her hopes up any further. Hannah would be expecting his news, anyway. She just hoped she wouldn't take it too hard.

But something else nagged her. Every day her feelings for Kane grew deeper and deeper. And she wasn't happy that she was keeping a secret from him. Would it be a relationship breaker if he found out?

She had firsthand experience of how people's idea of who she was could turn into something nasty simply because of the sexy nature of her books. George and Tim were prime examples of that. That was why protecting her pseudonym was important to her.

Kane wasn't anything like George or Tim, but she hadn't known him long enough to know how he'd react to the fact that his girlfriend wrote erotic romances. An online author friend of hers had said her husband strictly forbade her to tell anyone about her sexy books because he worried about how it might affect his professional profile. Her friend's husband was a big-shot lawyer.

And Kane wasn't just an architect. He was the co-director and part-owner of a firm that had large international corporations as their clients. Would he consider a girlfriend who wrote saucy novels using descriptive language an embarrassment to him? Would he think it could damage his reputation?

But she had to tell him. They couldn't build a strong relationship if she kept this from him. He would eventually find out. Question was, how would she go about it?

~~~~~~~

"Honey, I'm ho-ome!" came a voice from outside the door a few seconds after the bell rang.

Jasmine hurried to open the door for Kane, chuckling at the hilarious way he called out. "Hello, honey," she said as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him thoroughly.

The sound of tyres screeching as a car sped away startled her into breaking the kiss.

Kane made a complaining grunt and recaptured her lips.

She giggled. "Inside," she said against his mouth.

He snaked his arm around her waist and nudged her back, closing the door behind him as he continued his delicious attention on her lips.

God, their 'hello' kisses were getting hotter and hotter each time. They were sweet, sensuous torture. Frankly, she couldn't wait to get in his pants, especially when she could tell how hard he got.

"Kane," she said in gentle warning as she strained for a bit of distance.

"You don't want my kisses?" he asked huskily, keeping her within the tight circle of his strong arms.

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Oh, so you do want them, then," he said, nuzzling the side of her face.

"You know what I mean," she said breathlessly, her hands on his chest now caressing instead of pushing.

"Hmm, what exactly do you mean?" He pressed soft kisses on her neck.

"Stop," she said weakly.

But he continued, his hand finding its way underneath her top.

"Kane, you have ten seconds to stop or …"

"Or what?" His eager fingers played with the band of her bra as his tongue licked an earlobe.

"Or there'll be no stopping us. I don't want us to regret our first time."

Kane growled in frustration. "It's so hard, Jaz. I want you so much."

"I know," she soothed.

"Do you know how much I'm dying to be inside you?" he whispered in her ear, his body rigid from keeping his passion in check.

She trembled. "Yes. Just as much as I'm dying to feel you inside me."

He hissed before releasing her and putting his hands in his pockets. "That's why I haven't bought condoms yet. It's the one fact that's helping me to stop and wait."

"I'm on birth control. And I know we can trust each other," she said softly.

He groaned and stepped back from her. "You just made me ten times hotter," he said accusingly. "And you know I can't touch you yet."

"Hannah's back tomorrow," she reminded him.

He sighed. "Yes, another day or two won't kill me, I suppose."

"I have another bit of news," she announced, deciding to change the topic so they could both cool down. "Apparently, Tim's flying back to Melbourne later tonight."

"How do you know?"

"I was speaking with my mum and I kind of asked her if she heard how Tim enjoyed the wedding since he came here by himself. She said they had dinner with his parents yesterday and they mentioned Tim was catching the last flight back tonight."

"Jaz, you will tell your dad about his actions, right?" Kane asked.

She shifted on her feet. She didn't want to answer that question. She didn't know yet if that was what she wanted to do.

Kane put his hands on his hips as he gave her a disapproving look. "Jaz, you have to tell your father. And his father. Someone's got to make him see sense. And if he's actually unstable …"

"But he's stopped already," she replied with a pleading look. "I think he got the picture. If he sends me another text or did anything threatening, I promise I won't hesitate to tell my dad."

Kane stared at her for a long moment. "And me," he commanded.

She smiled. "And you."

She took his hand and led him to the lounge room. "Come, I want to show you something."

Jasmine handed Kane her new e-reader.

He looked at her quizzically.

"Do you have one?" she asked.

"Not this kind. I generally use my iPad or my phone to read ebooks. But generally speaking, I don't have much time to read for pleasure."

"Maybe you can check out my favourite author." She tried to keep the nervous tremor from her voice.

"Who's your favourite author?" he asked.

"Her name's J.A. Nell."

"J.A. Nell? Never heard of her."

"She's a newish author. Do you read romance novels?"

Kane snorted. "No. I'm into mysteries and thrillers."

"Well, maybe you should check out her books. They're on there."

"Romance novels are for girls, babe," Kane complained with a cute grimace.

She laughed. "Some men like them, too."

"Straight men?"

"Yes."

"Okay. But why?"

"Why not? Some men are very romantic and enjoy a good love story."

"I can be very romantic but I've never wanted to read a romance novel," Kane countered.

"Or maybe some of them like the hot sex scenes," she continued, ignoring his last comment.

"Hot sex scenes?" Kane now sounded interested.

"Uh-huh."

"This J.A., whatever her name is, has hot sex scenes in her books?"

"Yup."

"Okay. Maybe you can tell me what pages they're on and I'll read them."

She rolled her eyes at him. "But you have to start from the beginning to enjoy the book. The sexy parts just enhance the story but they're
not
the story."

"If I like her sexy parts maybe I'll read her whole book."

She sighed. Men.

At least he was going to read a part of one of the books and she'd be able to tell his reaction to it. Then she'd have to figure out her next step in her big reveal—that J.A. Nell and Jasmine Allen were one and the same.

*******

Jasmine got up from the massage table, deeply relaxed from the wonderful pampering she just had courtesy of Jessa and Rob. The newlyweds had given day spa vouchers as thank you gifts to their bridesmaids and groomsmen.

It was heavenly and she was grateful for the distraction. But now that it was over, her mind became busy again with thoughts of Kane.

He was back at his place today. In about an hour, he would be picking Hannah up from the airport. She prayed Hannah was in a good enough frame of mind to have the conversation she needed to have with Kane. But while he would confirm with Hannah they would no longer be together, both she and Kane agreed he wouldn't tell Hannah about her yet. They wanted to lessen the hurt as much as they could.

She got dressed and walked to the adjoining lounge area to enjoy some herbal tea. The aroma in the room was so soothing and the atmosphere so calming that she thought she might stay there for a few more hours and do some reading—if they'd let her. That would help her while away the time and keep her mind off her man.

Her
man.

She smiled at the thought.

She fished her phone out of her purse and found a couple of messages from him.

*Holy hell. Sexy parts in chapter 8. Sooooooo hot. I just might be interested enough to read this whole book. This J.A. Nell's quite a good writer. I can see why you like her.*

Loud laughter bubbled out of her, disturbing the peaceful ambiance of the place. She clamped her mouth with her hand and mouthed 'sorry' to the other woman in the room who smiled back at her.

She checked out his other text.

*If I do what's on chapter 9 to you would you do to me what's on the beginning of chapter 12?*

She went to the app on her phone to see exactly which scenes Kane was talking about. She chuckled silently. Naughty man. But then again, it was she who wrote them. She tapped a reply for him.

*Read from the beginning! It would be much more interesting.*

It wasn't long before she got a response back.

*You know what's more interesting, baby? Tomorrow night. You and me.*

She bit her lip as desire unfurled within her. Yes. Tomorrow night they would be free to do more than just kiss. Hopefully. She couldn't wait. And right now, she was feeling playful.

*What's happening tomorrow night?*

*You want me to spell it out for you?*

*I don't want to assume anything :-)*

*Suffice to say you'll be moaning and screaming the name 'Kane'. Just read the chapters I mentioned. We'll do them all. ;-) Why is tomorrow night so far away???*

*Hmmm. I feel like moaning already. I just read the bit where his fingers … well, you know where I would want YOUR fingers to be …*

*Jasmine! You're driving me crazy!!! I'd love to continue this but I need to head to the airport soon. So later, babe. Need to take an icy cold shower before I go.*

She glanced at her watch and apprehension intruded into her blissful state. He'd be seeing Hannah soon. How would that go? She replied to him.

*Okay. Good luck. I'll see you tomorrow.*

*Tomorrow. Miss you already.*

*Miss you too.*

Her fingers itched to include 'I love you' but she refrained. She'd rather say that face to face. And she hoped he'd say it first.

CHAPTER SIX

Kane stood outside the Arrivals hall, his palms sweaty as he waited for Hannah. He tried not to think of how she would react. He knew she didn't want to hear what he'd been wanting to say for weeks.

But he'd been patient enough with her. She had no choice this time. She had to listen to him and accept they were over.

He spotted her exiting the customs area. She was scanning the crowd as she pushed the trolley holding her bags. He took a deep sigh to brace himself, a feeling of dread settling in his gut.

He waved his hand to attract her attention.

"Kane!"

Hannah hurried to him and kissed him soundly on the lips.

He froze but she didn't seem to notice.

"I'm so glad to be back," she gushed.

He retrieved her trolley and started pushing it towards the parking area. "How was the flight?" he asked, not knowing what else to say.