Betrayed (The New Yorker) (4 page)

She heard him clear his throat and
Lisette’s eyes went back to his face. Her hormones distracting the rest of her
body so much there was no nerve left for her to feel embarrassed about been
caught checking him out.

* * * *

“Lisette,
the light turned green.”
Reno could feel the blood in his veins
pump hard into one direction. He was trying to keep a clear head but with the
blood heading south he couldn’t. He felt like Lisette’s eyes were picking him
apart and the way her eyes roamed it was obvious she was yet to find her
favorite spot. Reno didn’t think his groin could take much more inspection
before busting. He had half the mind to convince Lisette to park under a bridge
somewhere so that he could give them what they both wanted.

However, as soon as that idea got
into his mind, Reno realized how bad it was for him to be with her right now.
The only reason why he left with her was because to his shame he had announced
she was his stalker, and then there was whatever Victoria had said. He knew how
it felt for people to look down their noses at his mother, and the hurt in
Lisette’s eyes told him she needed comforting. But he needed something else. He
was grateful she had worn a tight pair of shorts, hard to get out of. Her dark
succulent thighs peeked from the denim fabric, and that got his heart racing.

Stop it
Reno, Dennis first, then you can have your way with Lisette. That is if she
will let you after you destroy her godfather. What if I just focused on Lisette
first? God knows when I will feel like this again.

“You want to share your thoughts or
are you going to keep staring at my thighs and licking your lips like the big,
bad wolf?” Lisette asked, with a naughty look in her eyes and a sly smile on
her lips.

Reno chuckled as his head fell back
to the headrest. He tried to shift his sitting position to accommodate the
bulge in his pants struggling to get free.

“I could park this car under a
bridge somewhere and help you with that,” she teased.

Reno sucked in a breath as his eyes
were reduced to slits. “I wouldn’t let you do that.”

“Why?”

“Because
you are special to me.
I wouldn’t disrespect you like that, by
taking you under a bridge. That’s not how our first time together will be,” he
swore.

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“What, that I respect you?”

“Nope—that you are thinking about
‘taking me’.” Lisette mimicked his strained tone. “Don’t worry, my mama taught
me better than that. In my experience sex talk is an ice breaker.”

“It doesn’t help with me.” Reno
chuckled. “It would probably be best if you stopped looking at me like you do.”

“Like what?” She turned to look at
him for a second and the cool deep brown of her eyes were filled with humor…and
lust.

“Like you
want to have your way with me.”

Reno watched as she threw her head
back and laughed again.
Her hand pushing back her thick dark
locks.
He had dreamt about running his fingers through that thick hair.
Reno gave in to the feeling that had been building inside him since the first
time he laid eyes on her. He dug his fingers into her hair and let his fingers
massage her scalp. That simple gesture earned him a smile that made his soul
quiver.

“Since I am buying lunch, I am taking
you to McDonalds.” she smiled. “And since I like you and I don’t want my
brother to kill you, I will stop tempting you.”

“I agree with both suggestions,” he
said. “I like you too.”

“I’m glad, because I was beginning
to feel like a stalker.”

“Well, I have the sexiest stalker
in New York.”

“I really want to sleep with you,
but maybe after the summer when we get to know each other better,” she
breathed. “Hopefully by then we will be making love.”

He whipped his head around to meet
her gaze. Flames of desire lit her eyes and his heart fluttered at the
expression on her face. He felt the strain claim his groin once more. There was
a definite promise that she would be in his bed, but the timeline was too
extreme. Lisette used the term ‘making love’. He was sure she wasn’t about to
give up on the attraction they felt for each other and he realized that neither
would he. Somehow he would have to fit in dating Dennis’s god-daughter into his
plans.

* * * *

Lisette knew that she had shocked
him. She had a habit of doing that. All through lunch she could see him sneak a
peek at her. His eyes telling everything he felt, even the restraint he had put
on himself. Lisette wasn’t about to let him make her break her promise to
herself. She was going to wait until she found the perfect man, and sitting
across from her, sharing a Happy Meal with her, was the perfect man. She didn’t
need to wait for marriage or worse, for circumstances to separate them, before
they were together. Reno
Kanaloa
was her man, her
first.

She stopped the car in front of his
apartment building just outside the school grounds. An air of awkward silence
hung over them that Lisette was desperate to break. They’d had a wonderful
afternoon and now it was dark she knew they were both thinking about a departing
kiss.

“I heard they started a football
team just for you,” she said.

“I don’t think that’s true,” he
chuckled. “I think the school just wanted to have a football team again. I’m
sure I had no bearing on that decision.”

“Cool.” They fell silent again with
only Lisette’s light tapping on the steering wheel piercing the silence. “How
about you kiss me and we can put each other out of our misery.”

She meant it as a joke. Not
entirely though. She desperately wanted him to kiss her. She just thought putting
their thoughts out there would kill this deafening silence. She watched in
surprise as Reno got out of the car and walked over to her side. He opened her
door and turned her whole body to face him. Holding onto her thighs he pulled
her closer to his body, so that her thighs were cradling his waist.

Her body begun to hum as his hand
skimmed up her back and cradled the back of her head. Lisette’s eyes didn’t
leave his. She saw his brown pools darken with lust and intent. She was
nervous. A twenty-two year old girl about to get her first real kiss, a taste
of what she would be getting at the end of the summer. His eyes burned with
lust as he brought his face close, the whole time his eyes fixed on hers.
Lisette locked her hands at the back of his neck as her eyes drifted closed.
She waited for it, and when his lips touched hers she grew hungry.

Lisette tightened the hold she had
on him and pulled him even closer. She could feel his restraint slipping away
as she demanded more from the kiss. She felt his chest heave and his breathing
went silent as his hands hungrily roamed her body in wonder. She locked her
legs around his waist and soon she found herself lifted off the seat and
wrapped around him in desperate need.

When they finally pulled away their
breathing was quick and short, as if their lungs were desperately trying to
fill themselves with the oxygen that they had missed for those few seconds.

“I need you to get in your car and
drive away.” Reno whispered in her ear, his voice strained and breathy. “Drive
away—or I swear to God we won’t make it to the end of the summer.”

“Call me, please,” Lisette said as
he buckled her in and closed her door.

“How long
until you get back home?”

“Fifteen minutes.”

“I’ll call you in fifteen minutes
and please, for my sake, drive carefully.”

Lisette nodded, her stomach knotted
with nerves. She pulled away and from her rear-view mirror she saw him standing
underneath a lamp post, the light forming a halo around him. She smiled as her
fingers touched her assaulted lips, laughing at how her body still seemed to be
humming from his touch. This was what she wanted to do every single day of
summer.

Lisette got home in ten minutes,
arriving just before dinner. She still had five minutes before her call with
Reno and about fifteen before she was called down for dinner. She ran past her
sister and her mother and disappeared into her room. She stared at her phone
until the second it rang. She took a second to calm her nerves before she
picked it up. Lying down on her bed, her feet lifted to the wall, Lisette felt
her heart soar as Reno’s rich baritone filled her ears and her soul.

* * * *

Reno stood under the spray of the
shower and let the cold water pound the desire out of his system. He thought he
had put a cap on his desire, enough to restrain him from mauling Lisette the
whole time they were together. What he hadn’t expected was her to be so hungry
for his kiss. It was crucial that he didn’t pull back a second too late. He
knew he would have had her flat on her back in an instant, her tiny shorts in
shreds and his body buried inside her to the hilt. He had never wanted a woman
as much as he wanted Lisette. After tasting her lips, he knew he was addicted.
There was no way he would be able to let her go now. Somehow he would find a way
to get even with Dennis, and Lisette would just have to find a way to forgive
him, because he was never letting her go.

Reno walked out of the shower and
into his room. On his laptop he saw he had a new message. He knew his life had
just got complicated when he scrolled the email.

Dear Mr.
Kanaloa
,

We would like to inform you your
application to intern at Ross and Kent Legal and Financial Firm has been
accepted. Please report to the office on the Monday the 6
^th
of June.

Welcome to one of the world’s leading
firms.

From the
office of Dennis Kent.

“It begins.” Reno grabbed his phone
and checked the text message Lisette just sent him. It was a picture of her
blowing him a kiss. He chuckled at how adorable she looked. Somehow, he swore
to himself, somehow he would be able to get both the things he desperately
wanted.

Chapter Three

“Lisette!”

“Papa!”

Lisette ran out of her room to the
den where she expected to find her father. She was still in her pajamas and had
been speaking to Reno for the better part of the morning. She found her father
behind his desk reading a newspaper. He was fully dressed in his suit and had a
steaming cup of coffee in front of him. The old man looked up from his paper
and his face scowled.

“You are not yet dressed, Lisette.”

“Dressed for what?” Lisette asked
stunned.

“Your brother is already at the
hospital,
Catalella
has left for community service
and you are still in pajamas,” he scolded.

“Oh no!”
Lisette
slapped her forehead.

“You are going to make me late,
Lisette.”

“I’m sorry. Go ahead and I will
follow. I promise I won’t be late.” Lisette rushed to her room and took out one
of her suits. She was supposed to start her internship at her father’s office
today. She wasn’t going to work directly with her father but with her uncle.
Lisette wasn’t comfortable with working for family, but it was the only firm
that would hire her. Everyone else was afraid that she was going to take
company secrets and give them to her father.

She got ready in half the time she
usually did. Her mother dried her hair for her as she brushed her teeth.
Lisette grabbed her shoes and ran for her car as her mother followed behind
with her briefcase. She took a second for a blessing from her mother before she
drove out. Lisette had her fingers crossed praying that the traffic wouldn’t be
at a standstill. But when she was about two blocks from the office, traffic did
come to a standstill at an intersection. She parked her car on the curb and ran
the rest of the way. Once she was in her father’s building, she took a second
in the elevator to right
herself
.

She confidently walked out the
elevator and past a group of interns. Already she knew they were going to be
her responsibility. An intern would be assigned to an associate but they always
reported directly to her. She had been there longer than some associates.

“Miss Ross.” She heard Dennis’
secretary call to her. Lisette picked up the tray of coffee being handed to her
and walked confidently into her uncle’s office without missing a beat.

“Mr. Kent,
your coffee.”
She set the coffee tray down on the desk
and took a step back.

“One, Miss Ross you are five
minutes late and two Mr. Ross would like to know where your car is.” Dennis
spoke his eyes still on his morning paper.

“I parked it—somewhere. It was getting
later so I decided to run the rest of the way,” she said.

“It’s been towed.” Dennis said with
a smile as his head lifted.

Lisette bit back an oath and was
just about to start to grovel. He knew her father would give her a hard time
about getting it out, but her uncle Dennis could get it out for her
immediately. Unlike her father, he was still weak to her charms.

“Please, uncle Denny.”

“Tell Marie to call someone to get
it out for you.” He cleared his throat and looked to the other side of the
room. “Meet Mr.
Kanaloa
, he is one of the new
interns, but like you he will be working directly under me.”

Lisette’s head whipped to the other
side of the room and there she met Reno’s gaze. She smiled at him, but he
didn’t smile back. He had a serious set to his face, like he was angry.
No—like an enraged volcano about to erupt.

“I look forward to working with
you, Miss Ross.” he grunted.

“Do you really?” Lisette quickly
asked. Her question met by a raised black eyebrow.

“First things first Lisette: intern
rotation. I don’t know why they are on this floor, but you should take them
down to the second. Make sure you don’t get them mixed up with the legal
department. Michael Mathews is coming up for them.”

“I forgot that bastard applied for
an internship here,” she sneered.

“Lisette, watch your language.”
Dennis put his paper down and leaned on his elbows. “Why is he a bastard? What
did he do to you, piggy?”

“Maybe I should step out,” Reno
suggested.

“No need to. I will tell you later,
uncle Denny.” she smiled. “About the car…”

“I won’t tell your father,
pinkie swear
.”

Lisette chuckled as she led Reno
out of the office. Every inch of her wanted to turn around and plaster
herself
on his hard body. But when she looked into the other
corner office on the floor she saw her father briefing Michael. She needed to
get off that floor.

“Why didn’t you tell me you worked
here?” Lisette asked once they got into the lift. It was just about to fill
with half a dozen interns when she shook her head. “Get the next one.”

“Why did you do that?” Reno asked.

“Because I
want to do this.”
Lisette dropped her briefcase to the
ground and leapt into Reno’s arms, her skirt rode high, exposing her thighs as
her legs locked behind his back, while her lips claimed his. They were
plastered to each other for a second before he lowered her to the ground and
righted both their suits.

“We shouldn’t do that here.” Reno
said as he cleared his throat.

Lisette could see that he was
trying to be serious, but he couldn’t hide that smile from her.
“Football Pro by night, financial adviser by day.
Actually I
want to be an investment banker. The football was the only way I could afford
to come to school.”

“You got a full ride on a sports
scholarship.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you have to practice every
day? When are you going to find time for that?”

“Practice is at five. I will be
able to do both, I can multi-task.”

The elevator doors opened and they
stepped out. As they did, Lisette remembered something. She walked over to the
receptionist. “Call Marie and ask her to get someone to take my car out of
impound. I will be in my office if she needs anything from me.”

* * * *

Reno stood aside and watched as
Lisette controlled the second floor. It helped that she was related to the
owners but the associates seemed to respect her. He wondered how long she had
been there. She delivered each intern to their associate and wondered how the
firm was able to do as well as they did with such a skeleton staff.

“We invest in interns.” Lisette
said as she gave him the tour. “There are two other floors for the financial
department of this firm, the investors and the analyst. They have their own
bunch of interns.”

“What are the other floors?”

“The legal
department.Interns
, paralegals, associates and the junior
partners and different departments.”
She smiled at him. “But the top
floor is for the senior partners.”

“What does Michael do here?” Reno
couldn’t ignore the annoyance he felt when he realized that Michael would be
working in the same building as Lisette. He would have to keep an eye on him.

“He’s an intern. He works directly
under my father. Guess he finally got to meet him. He might be a jackass but
apparently he has a very promising career in the legal field.” Reno stopped
just as she did in front of a large office, just as big as the associates’
offices. “The cubicles are for interns—this is my office.”

Reno took a step back and read the
name on the door, and true to what she had said, her name was on it. “You have
an office?”

“I have been working here since I
was sixteen, longer than some associates. At year five I demanded an office.”
she shrugged.

“Demanded?” Reno didn’t doubt it.

“There are two desks in here, so I
am assuming one is yours.”

“I didn’t know they were going to
put me in your office. If you want I could go to the cubicles,” he offered.

“No, I would much rather have you
close to me. Just in case I want to kiss you, or that intern wants to kiss
you.” Reno smirked when he saw Lisette scowl at the pretty little intern
checking him out. “I would definitely rather have you close by.
For the safety of all the other skirts out there.
I would
hate to have to throw someone out the window.”

“I bet,” Reno teased. “What do we
do first?”

* * * *

Lisette was still scowling at the
bunch of files on her desk. Having Reno work on them with her had been a
blessing. Sure, at first he had slowed her down with all the questions, but she
was patient with him, and soon he was getting through them almost as fast as
she was.

“You want to get lunch?” Reno asked
as he exhaled and leaned back in his chair. He stretched his arms, and then his
hand fell to the back of his neck—a sign of exhaustion and frustration.

Lisette looked to her desk and a
pang of guilt hit her. “I would love to but I can’t. I need to get done with
these, if we want Friday off.”

“Why would
we
take Friday off?” he asked, his eyebrows pulled together in a
questioning frown.

“I am taking you out on a date.”

“The whole day Friday?” he asked
with a smile.

“If I could I would abduct you and
take you away for the rest of our lives. But we both have responsibilities and
goals which do not include wasting away on an island making love every single
second.” She stared into his hooded eyes and she knew his imagination was
beginning to run away with him.

“We wouldn’t need any clothes.” He
conceded a smile. “We would eat the fruits we would find there. We would
definitely be busy exploring each other’s bodies.”

“Definitely.”

“I think I’ll stay back and help
you with these.”

“I don’t want you to lose that
beautiful body, so I’ll order in some lunch.”

“It’s a date, piggy.” Reno laughed
as Lisette groaned. She didn’t need him to start using her nickname too.

* * * *

“Did you see him?” Dennis was
pacing back and forth in Adrian’s office. His heart hadn’t stopped beating a
mile a minute ever since Reno walked into his office. It was like looking at
himself in the mirror. His first-born son was here. Why?

“I only caught a glimpse of him.”
Adrian paused and Dennis looked on expectantly. “He definitely looks like you.”

“I knew it.” Dennis sat agitating for
a minute, his foot gloved in Italian leather tapping on the expensive leather.
He had been keeping tabs on his son ever since
Kono
,
Reno’s mother, sent him a letter saying that they couldn’t find
Rhyne
.
Kono
had claimed that she
didn’t have a choice but to give their little girl away. She couldn’t afford to
keep both children. He felt his gut twist when he found out the conditions his
children were living in. And the disappearance of one had him springing into
action. No one but his three friends knew he had four children instead of the
two publicly recognized. He hadn’t told
Issadora
, his
wife, either.

“I thought you said your guy
spotted him in Honolulu?” Adrian asked.

Dennis jumped to his feet and began
pacing yet again. Dennis had put a tail on Reno ever since he was in high
school. Without him knowing, he had paid for his schooling supplies, medical
bills, birthdays and anything else that came up. But he knew that Reno would
only see the emotional and physical deprivation instead of the monetary benefits.
He’d been in a college in Honolulu under a ‘scholarship’ program. All of a
sudden Reno was out of school and in his office.

“Yes, but now he’s here.”

“You gave him the job.”

“I had to.” Dennis scrubbed his
face with the palm of his hand. “I saw the name Reno
Kanaloa
and I had to know if it was him. He dropped Kent for some reason. He was using
it back on the island but dropped it now.”

“Maybe he’s here to settle a score.
What could have made him come here?”

“I thought that maybe he was
looking for some family. His mother died a few months back. She was killed by
her boyfriend.” Dennis let out a labored breath. “You might be right. He’s here
to settle a score.”

“And you put him in the same office
as my daughter.” Adrian growled. “I don’t care if he’s your son, if he hurts my
little girl—”

“Lisette is like my own! All your
children are as much mine as they are yours, and vice versa. I would never let
anything happen to them.” Dennis knew he had to figure out Reno’s motive
quickly, before Lisette was caught in the crossfire. “We shouldn’t let Lisette
know that anything might be amiss.”

“Yeah, she has a thing for the
forbidden.” Adrian chuckled. “I hate seeing you hurt like this. I think the
best approach is to tell Reno you know who he is. Maybe you two can work from
there.”