Kennedy In Denver (In Denver Series Book 1) (9 page)

What the fuck am I thinking, kissing him in front of his family? I feel the panic taking hold. Gripping the counter I start counting, calm down, deep breath, and show no emotion. Holy shit, he has a girlfriend, thereforeI just broke like a million girl code rules. I've become the hoe that makes out with other peopl
e’
s boyfriends. The first guy I ever really kiss, and he isn't even single.

"What the hell Siobhan? Is everything alright?"

"Stacy, I just kissed your brother like full on tongue down his throat in front of your entire family,and he was my first kiss
.
” Stacy looks shocked

“
But you’re like twenty-four
!
”

“
I grew up sheltered. I was also weird. I didn't have a lot of friends growing up,and he has a girlfriend
.
”

“
Hold up, Easton is as single as they come! He broke up with Stella right after you gave her a piece of your mind. Jesus chick, don't you have a Facebook or Twitter? The girl changed her status like, immediately, saying she was taking this time to reflect on what kind of man she really needed in her life or some crap.

“As far as you cramming your tongue down my brothe
r’
s throat, I didn't see him complaining. My mom is already in there discussing wedding venues with Rose, so I think it's safe to say everyone is okay. Come on, beforeall the good monopoly pieces get taken
.
”

I sat in between Max and Jax. When Easton came in, they made it very clear that they had called dibs and were not moving. My guys were gonna to be awesome boyfriends. After a four-hour death match game of monopoly, Killian had defeated us all. Everyone said goodnight and left. Easton sat on the sofa and he pulled me down on his lap. He looked at me and said

“
You have to get use to my touch,baby
.
”

“
I don't mind being touched. I just don't like strange men touching me. I need to tell you something. I need you to understand that we have to take things slow. You're the first person I've ever kissed with tongue. I'm a little behind, so please, I need things to go slow
.
”

“
I'm sorry, but I think I'm missing something. Have you ever been with someone
?
” I shake my head at him.

“
I don't understand how that's even possible
.
”

“
I haven't had sex. What's there to understand
?
”

“
But you're beautiful
!
” he said.

“
I was a weird kid, I was super tall. I had braces, bad skin, glasses and frizzy hair. I graduated early and went to college at seventeen. When I finally got to college, I still had frizzy hair and I still wore glasses. I was still a freakish giant standing five-nine and I was a size ten in the land of double zeros, I was huge. Add in the lack of style compared to my friends, and I was the ugly friend.”

“It's always been hard to put myself out there. The first boy I kissed was Dustin Brock in tenth grade. He kissed me on a dare. He told everyone my lips were dry
.
”

“
Siobhan, we can wait for as long as it takes. We aren't in a race
.
” Easton kisses my nose and he says goodnight.

For the next three weeks, we take things slow. I grow used to his touch. Sometimes i
t’
s brushing hair off my face or tracing the outside of my ear. As we both work from my sofa, Easton has not attempted to take it past light caresses and powerful kisses. I know after a month that even if Easton and I don't work out I want him to be my first.

My parents were very liberal, both coming from a devout, strict Catholic background. They used the Bible as a guide and not the law. Sex and other teen issues were always talked about openly and honestly at our house. My father, as all men with daughters, felt I should never-ever have sex, but if I did, it should be after marriage. My mother was more realistic. She said when I was ready I would know.

The person that I chose to be my first should love and respect me and I should love and respect him. More importantly, unless I wanted to be tied to him forever by a child, I shouldn't have sex because no birth control is a hundred percent. So, Easton didn't know me he knew the mask not Kennedy Brennan. I know he cares for me but I know he doesn't love me. Yet knowing all these things, I still want him. I still feel like I will combust. Sitting next to him, with his sock-covered feet on my coffee table, laptop open and his shirt with the first couple buttons undone and sleeves rolled up, I'm feeling brave, but he distracts me.

“
Baby, what do you want for dinner
?
”

I look over at him and say
,“
I can make something quickly
.
”

“
No
.
” He leans over and kisses me.

I slip my tongue into his mouth. This is it. I need to make my move. I close the lid of his laptop and move to his lap straddling him. I could feel his erection against my pussy, and I squirmed as he nipped the bottom of my lip. He slowly kissed across my jaw and behind my ear.

“
Hmmm,that feels so good
.
” I started rocking against his dick, and I could feel the pressure in my stomach building. I had never had sex, but I had given myself plenty of orgasms. He pulled my turtleneck down, and I felt his tongue lick my neck. I scrambled off his lap, throwing up the contents of my stomach all over the floor.

I couldn't breathe! I couldn't breathe! Oh my God, my neck! I can't catch my breath, but I can't make any sound.  
I’
m panicking!  I can hear someone yelling, but they keep yelling Siobhan! Who the hell is Siobhan? My vision is going dark, and I can't breathe! I'm dying! Oh god, I'm dying!

I wake up to Stacy crying and holding my hand. Michael is sitting in the chair at the corner. Easton is pacing the room. He seems angry, but I don't know why.

Where am I? I look aroun
d
… I'm in my room. I instinctively reach up and feel my neck. Sitting up, the covers fall down, and I realize I'm naked. I have those sticky electrodes stuck on my chest…I realize that they can see the scars I tried to hide. Easton looks at me so hurt, like I betrayed him.

“
I need to hear you say it
,
” he is looking at me with pleading eyes, begging me not to tell him what he already knows.

“My name is Kennedy Brennan. I survived the Barton Butcher, and then I killed him.”

No one says anything. Easton walks out of the room. I hear the front door slam. Michael gets up and grabs me a shirt and shorts out of my dresser. Keeping his voice even and low he sits on the bed next to me and explains I had a panic attack.

“He will be back. He isn't angry at you. He feels helpless. He hit the panic button on the alarm pad. The EMTs responded and when they cut your shirt off, we saw your scars. He told them to get out, carried you to the bathroom and washed you off. He put you in bed, and he wouldn't let anyone get near you. My mom tried to help him, and he actually growled at her like a crazed animal.”

“
Does everyone know who I am
?
”

“
When the panic button was pushed all of the siblings got a text. The only one that came after the fact was Liam and Rose because they don't live in the building
.
”

I nodded.

“
I wasn't trying to be dishonest, I was gonna tell you who I really was. I just needed a little while to get myself together. After the trial and the shooting, I went to a mental hospital and I was treated for PTSD and depression. I haven't had a panic attack in over fourteen months. Your brother didn't mean to, but he triggered a memory from the night of the murders. Henry licked my neck, and then he slit my throat. He stabbed me nine times then killed my three best friends.”

“I could hear them screaming, and I couldn't move. I just laid there until the morning when Tristan Cooper found me. I don't regret killing him, if I could do it again, I would. I don't regret killing him, but I regret taking a life. It made me a murderer, no different from the monster I killed. We both enjoyed the kill and never had a regret
.
”

I was so lost in my story I didn't notice my room fill with all the Kerrigan’s.

“
You're nothing like that bastard
,
” Rhydian said.

“
You may not regret it,and
I’
m glad you enjoyed it. What that monster did to you, and fifteenother women, and what you did to him is not the same thing
.
”

I looked up to a voice I didn't recognize. Killian spoke and everyone looked as shocked as I did.

“
No one has the right to judge you! No one has any idea what it was like for you to survive what you did! But here you are, making a life for yourself, trying to still do what you love and wanting to share it with kids that might never have an opportunity otherwise
,
” Killian continued.

“
Killian, your voice is beautiful
!
” He shrugged and walked away.

“
Holy shit, I haven't heard him speak since he lost his hearing
!
” Stacy says.  

“We are all going to go home. We cleaned up the living room and the EMT said she wouldn't breathe a word to a soul. Stacy is gonna take your extra key, so she will set the alarm and lock up. No one is going to say a word until you are ready. As far as anyone is concerned you are Siobhan Gallagher until you're ready not to be
,
” Elena said.

Everyone said good night, I heard the alarm set and the doors lock. I went to sleep wondering if Easton would ever look at me the same, or if I was too damaged to even be given a chance.

I've been walking for hours and when I check my phone, I have about fifty calls and a hundred text messages from my family, but I just keep walking. I finally stop at a park and Google Kennedy Brennen; four million results come up so I start at the beginning. I read about the Barton Butcher and his revenge plot. I read about all the women he raped, tortured and killed. I finally get to all the articles about Kennedy and her friends, and when I pull up the pictures,
I’
m shocked to see my girl is even more beautiful than I thought.  Sh
e’
s a redhead with bright green eyes and freckles across the bridge of her nose. In most of the pictures,sh
e’
s in jeans and super hero t-shirts and seems to have a love for Converse. Whatever super hero t-shirt she has on she has on matching shoes. I notice she wears black hipster glasses. I click a few more pictures. Sh
e’
s always around a group of pretty girls; a Goth chick, a Hispanic girl, and a blonde.

I read articles in every paper they were known around campus as the
September 4
. How they were nice and kind to everyone. In all that ugliness, no one had a bad thing to say about any of the girls. They talked about how they would volunteer and sing old standards at retirement homes, how Kennedy would go out of her way to help any student.

The thing that hurt the most to watch were the videos of her performances. She looked like sitting at a piano was where she belonged. She opened her mouth to sing and it hurt my heart. Not only were her friends taken, but it appears her gift was taken also. I was shocked to read about the trial and the shooting. Every media outlet was searching for Kennedy, now that they realized she’d been released. I saw how, after a successful run on Broadway and a role on one of the biggest TV shows on the planet, he was still Tristan Cooper, the guy who found the Barton Butche
r’
s final victims.

Tristan's name and Kennedy's name would be linked in infamy forever. I sat on that park bench, and I cried. I cried for what happened to Kennedy. I cried because I couldn't go back in time and save her the pain. I cried because my touch made her have a panic attack. It was three am by the time I texted Rhydian my location and asked him to come get me.

When I got in the car, he put the car in park. Killian spoke from the back seat
.“
You left her. She needed you to tell her everything was going to be ok and you left her
!
” Then he sat back.

When Rhydian put the car in drive, I would have defended myself but since I was in shock at the fact that he actually spoke I sat in silence. Walking into my apartment, I found a note, a key and an alarm code. I walked to Siobhan's apartment, no, Kennedy's apartment and let myself in. I walked into her room and sat in the chair. She rolled over.

"Will you come lay with me, please?"

"You don't ever have to ask me to hold you, Siobhan."

"Please don't call me that when we're alone. Please say my name, my real name, please."

"Kennedy, I'm here for you." I stripped down to my boxers and got in bed I have never lain in bed with a woman before. Not like this. It feels weird, but good.

"I'm sorry you had to find out like this. I was gonna tell you. I just needed a little time."

"Baby, just let me hold you. Let’s go to sleep. We have our whole lives to talk." I kissed the top of her head and we fell into a peaceful sleep.

I smell bacon and rolling over I feel the empty space next to me. This is the first time I've ever spent the night with a woman who I wasn't fucking. I walk up behind my Kennedy and wrap my arms around her waist. Damn, this is how I want to wake up every morning for eternity. I know in my heart that I will love Kennedy beyond my lifetime. I never believed in soul mates until I touched her hand for the first time.

"It smells good, baby."

"I was waiting to find out how you like your eggs cooked. If you sit down I will grab you some juice," she says.

"Baby, you sit down. I will make up some eggs. We have a lot to discuss. How to do like your eggs, baby?"

“Uummm, scrambled dry with some brown crust, and you have to put adobo in them. I won't eat them without it. It's in the spice cabinet; red top, yellow label. My friend, Pilar used to make breakfast every Sunday. The first time I had eggs with adobo in them I never ate them plain again.”

She pauses before continuing, “It's strange to talk about them with anyone but Dr. Franklin, but I feel like I'm ready. I'm sure you Googled my name so you know the gruesome story, but you don't know what it was like to wake up after weeks and find out my friends were gone. The nightmares and flashback last night was nothing. That was a mild panic attack, Easton. I'm all kinds of fucked up, and as much as I want to see where we go, I'm gonna stop before you see how damaged I really am and run for the hills. I listened to my friends be tortured, raped and murdered. I was tortured and left for dead. Then I woke up by some miracle and became the face of every parent's fears of their children going to college.”

“After two years of physical therapy and therapy for PTSD I thought I was better. I was happy in Boston. I wasn't teaching like I planned, but I was good. I sat through the trial and tried to figure out how someone as handsome and charming as Henry Burns could be so evil. I knew I was going to kill him. I planned it. I didn't black out. During my two years in Boston, I linked up with some underground people they taught me. They trained me in self-defense and Krav Maga. I've been shooting all kinds of weapons since I was a kid. My dad had guns, and he taught me safety and how to shoot. When I stepped on the stand I knew what I was gonna do, and I didn't even hesitate."

She goes to stand up, and I grab her hand softly. "Now that you got that off your chest, here is how it's gonna be. You and I are together. I'm twenty-nine years old, so I'm not saying your my girlfriend. In a few weeks we’ll get engaged, and then get married. I know that without a doubt I love you, Kennedy Brennan. You just told me you premeditated killing a man in cold blood in front of a million people watching across the world, and my first thought wasn't to run. My first thought was if you killed a hundred men for no reason other than they pissed you off, I would help you hide the bodies. I don't need you to tell me you love me back, I need you to eat your special Pilar eggs and get dressed. We have things to do today.”