Chapter 19

Kat

AS TRENT GENTLY CARESSED my skin, my mind somehow sought Kobe. Why? Why, after the horrible way he’d treated me, was I still thinking of him? Was I a masochist? Was I one of those girls who enjoyed being mistreated?

No. No, I wasn’t. I was just caught up in the ‘what could have been’. I was caught up in the childhood crush I’d had on him. I’d known Kobe for so long and my thoughts had occasionally gone to what the future might hold for us.

“I love the silky touch of your skin against mine,” Trent said.

I abruptly returned my attention to the man at my side. A gorgeous hunk of a man that any woman would love to spend time with. Not only did he look good, but his touch was gentle and sensual. He was kind and patient and intelligent... everything a woman could want.

Kobe, on the other hand, was moody. He was bossy and demanding. He couldn’t control his temper and was almost always angry at something or other. The sweet boy from camp was gone; gone and dead. He’d been replaced by a heartless, ruthless, careless young man. He’d become just like his father Errol King.

I sighed, relieved by the thought that I’d found him out before it was too late. What his father had done to Ginger was inexcusable.

Trent pressed his body against mine as his hands roamed, caressing my inner thigh, up my belly across my breasts and back down again to the crux of my thighs.

His touch was heavenly, and I could tell that he was eager to please me, to pleasure me and to make sure I enjoyed the moment with him.

He brought his lips to my sensitive skin, adding to the pleasure his hands brought. He shifted down over me, kissing his way over my belly, to my navel and onward. My anticipation was at an all-time high as he prepared to set his lips on my clit.

A loud knocking at the door stopped him cold.

“What the hell is that?” he said, clearly upset by the interruption. “The restaurant’s closed.”

“The place is closed, and the lights are out,” I said, equally upset by the persistent knocking. “Who could be hanging around here at this time?”

“Ignore it,” Trent said. “Whoever it is, they’ll go away. It’s obvious that no one’s here. We even parked our cars a little further away.”

“Could it be the vandals coming back for more destruction?”

“And they’re knocking before entering?” He sounded almost annoyed by my question.

I shrugged. “I’m just trying to make sense of it.”

“Try making sense of this,” he said as he continued to kiss my tender skin.

But the knocking became loud pounding that could not be ignored. Trent and I held out breaths and waited. Then the pounding stopped.

“See,” Trent said. “Whoever it is realized there was no one inside and they’re gone.”

But seconds later the pounding began anew, only this time it wasn’t out by the front entrance, but through the outer wall of Trent’s office. Whoever it was knew where the office was.

“What the fuck?” Trent let out.

“We may as well go out to see what’s going on,” I suggested.

“No,” Trent said. He looked at me, the hunger in his eyes almost enough to devour me. “You’re so damned sexy. I can’t stand the thought of stopping now. I want to lick you, I want to eat you. You are so hot. Look, whoever’s out there can wait. Or better yet, go away.”

“If we can get rid of whoever it is, we’ll have a better time afterward. I’ll be ready and waiting once the intruder is dealt with.”

Biting his lower lip, he grinned as he took one long, last look at me. After a moment’s thought, he said, “Okay. You’re right. Besides, you’re all tensed up now. There’ll be no pleasure in it for you if we go on. I’m so honored that you would choose to lose your virginity to me... I want everything to be perfect.”

“I’m the one who is honored that you would want me, Trent.”

He smiled. “You’re a Lee. Katrina Lee. I can hardly believe it. You have no idea how much this means to me.”

A little caught off guard by his last comment, I simply smiled and sat up. “Come on. Let’s get rid of this intrusive bozo.”

“Right.”

Trent got to his feet and pulled his pants on.

“Hurry back,” I said, sitting up to watch him go.

“You bet.”

Moments later I heard Trent open the door and the moment he did, the dining room was filled with violent shouting. At first it was just gibberish, and I couldn’t make anything out. But the voice came closer... clearer.

“Where is she? I know she’s here! I heard her.”

Kobe? What in the world is he doing here?

“The place is closed,” Trent shouted back. “Get out of here.”

“You asshole,” Kobe shot back. “You think I’m going to let you get away with this.”

“She doesn’t want you,” Trent said. “It’s time you accepted that. She wants me. She wants...”

His words were abruptly cut off by a sickening thud.

Oh, shit! I stood and threw my dress on, buttoning it up as I ran out of the office. Entering the dining room I ran into Kobe.

“Kat,” he said as he looked at me, his eyes instantly pained. “What are you doing here? Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

“Kobe, no. I’m fine, he didn’t hurt me one bit, but the question is, what are you doing here?”

“I saw a light on and...”

“You drove all the way out here to check and see if a light was on?”

His jaw tightened and his nostrils flared. “No. I came out here hoping to find evidence of what my father did. I want to shove the proof in his face and have him own up to it.”

“But you told me that he’d already admitted to it. He told you how he wanted to see the Lee Family restaurants destroyed.”

He pulled in a deep breath. “He said he’d be happy to see your father go down, but he didn’t say, in so many words, that he actually did this. I want the proof. When I confront him with this, I don’t want him to weasel out and say it was just talk. Besides, I know his ability to lawyer up and I want to be ready.”

I was stunned. “Other than confronting your father, what are you going to do with this proof, should you find it?”

“Show it to the authorities and have him charged.”

“You’d do that? You’d turn in your own father?”

“If that’s what I have to do, yes. Besides, how can I respect a man who would stoop so low? All my life I was raised to respect my elders, but... hell, if this is what my elders are up to, I don’t owe them anything. I don’t owe him an ounce of respect.”

“I can’t believe you would do that, Kobe.”

“I want you to know how sorry I am that this happened... all of it. The vandalism, the breakup, the cold shoulder that I was ordered to show you. I don’t care what my father wants. I want us back together. I don’t care that you’re the daughter of his rival. That’s between your father and mine. But us... me and you? Damn, I already miss you, Kat. I want you back at the Academy. I want you back in my life. This whole thing has been torture. I want you back... period.”

Stunned into silence, I just stared at him. Of course I wanted him back, but could I really trust him this time. Or was he going to abandon me the moment his father objected?

“Okay,” I finally said. “You’re right. I’d like to know the truth behind this as well.”

“Glad you’re on board. Now... I noticed that there are surveillance cameras outside. We could start by looking at the footage from those.”

“Good idea. What about Trent? Maybe he could help us with this.”

Kobe hesitated then tilted his head toward the dining room. “Trent is sort of out of commission for the moment.”

“Kobe? What does that mean?” Before he could answer, I walked past him to find Trent on the floor, knocked out. “You did this?”

“Come on, Kat. He came out here half naked and I could hear... anyways, I thought he’d hurt you. I thought he was taking advantage of you.”

“So, you knocked him out?”

“I didn’t mean to. I mean, not really. The arrogant jerk wouldn’t even admit that you were here. What does that tell you?”

“Oh, Kobe. I wish you hadn’t done that.” I looked at Trent and wondered how seriously he was hurt. Inside, however, I was smiling with glee. Kobe was actually jealous of Trent.

“Don’t worry about him. I didn’t knock him out that hard. He should be up in a few minutes. In the meantime, let’s take a look at some of that surveillance footage.”

“Okay,” I said. “You’re right about the cameras outside, although there are four and not two. We also have two cameras in the dining room, one in the kitchen and one in Trent’s office.”

“How do you know all this?”

“I’ve been working on this project, Kobe. I know you think I just came here to fool around with Trent, but we actually did get some work done. Part of that work was looking at the budget. I was surprised to learn that a good chunk of it had gone to security; re-enforced doors and windows, motion detection lights and, of course, these security cameras. And they are all linked to some application that one can pull up and check out.”

“Great. Let’s have a look.”

We headed back to Trent’s office, and I sat at his desk while Kobe pulled a chair up beside me. I opened Trent’s laptop and glanced at Kobe. “I think I should be able to access them from here.”

“There’s probably a password to get in.”

“Yeah,” I said. “But I have a sneaking suspicion that I might know what it is.” I punched in my name. “K-A-T-R-I-N-A. And...” I pressed ‘enter’. “... voila.”

“Figures he would use that,” Kobe said disgustingly. “The guy’s so obvious.” He looked me over. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he hasn’t tried to get you into bed with him on day one. The creep.”

“Okay,” I almost blushed as I looked at the screen. Trent did move very fast. Too fast for my traditional parents. Too fast for me even, but I must’ve been feeling so low after how Kobe treated me since I arrived at the Academy. Did I let Trent get as far as he did because I felt so rejected by Kobe in the beginning and I wanted to prove him wrong, that I was desirable? I don’t know. It could be because Trent was so seductively hot, and he knew how to make me feel good. I remembered how good he made me feel just minutes before as he licked my body. So good. I smiled as I said, “Look at this.”

Folders were on his desktop, and I opened the one named ‘security’.

“Here we go. Each of these is from one camera for one day. So here...” I brought the cursor over Camera 1, for October 12.” “This would give us a view of what happened out front on the night of the vandalism.”

“Open it up. I can’t wait to see.”

I started the footage. “Hmm,” I said when nothing much appeared. “I think I’ll speed it up a bit.” We watched the footage for the entire night.

“Nothing,” Kobe said, clearly disappointed.

“Do you think this could have been done during the day?”

“There aren’t many people around. Not much of a chance to have witnesses. Sure. Take a look.”

I opened the morning file.

“There’s Trent,” Kobe said.

“Yeah. He’s opening up in the morning to get to work.”

“And he turns around to lock the door behind him.”

“No one else can get in,” I added. “So, we still don’t have anything.”

“Go to one of the interior shots... let’s say the dining room.”

I opened the file. “Now we see Trent coming inside.”

“Disappears into his office.”

“I’ll fast forward it. Surely there isn’t much to see.”

“Hang on,” Kobe said before I hit the button. “Look. He’s coming back to the dining room.”

“So?” I said. “It’s Trent. That’s not who we’re looking for.”

“There,” Kobe shouted almost jumping out of his seat. “Look at him.”

Staring at the screen, I was stunned silent. Trent picked up a chair and smashed it against a table. Then another chair and another and another. He went back into the kitchen, his hands filled with cups and saucers. He threw them violently to the floor, ensuring they smashed into hundreds of pieces.

“The bastard,” Kobe said under his breath. “The fucking bastard.”

“He’s going back into the kitchen.”

“Switch cameras.”

I did and we witnessed Trent smashing several of the pots and pans with a hammer he’d brought. The rest of the pots and pans and cooking utensils he simply threw to the floor.

“Switch to his office.”

“I can’t believe this,” I muttered as I switched to his office. I could hardly bear to watch.

“He’s pulling out a can of spray paint.”

“I just can’t believe he would do this.” I wanted to cry. “I can’t believe I was so gullible. My God. My father hired him, and he ruined my father’s restaurant.”

“And he tried to blame me and my family for it.”

I nodded, watching the screen as Trent painted the big blue letters of Kobe’s family name.

“Why would he do this?”

“Because he’s an asshole, Kat. A pure asshole.”

“What are we going to do now?” I said as I sat back. “Do we call the police or what?”

Kobe reached over to fast-forward the remainder of the footage. “I don’t know. Maybe you could call your dad to let him know.”

I chuckled, relieved the crime wasn’t committed by the Kings after all. “I guess you should do that, too.”

He laughed without amusement. “Yeah. I guess I do owe my old man an apology. But, shit. I sure don’t feel like making that call. I mean, who knows. Maybe my dad put Trent up to it.”

“I guess that could be true.”

“Oh, and what do we have here,” Kobe said as he returned the footage to normal speed.

“Oh, Kobe,” I let out as I saw myself with Trent. “Don’t look at that.”

“The bastard,” he said as Trent removed my dress and began to kiss me all over. “Looks like I got here just in the nick of time.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? I was actually enjoying myself there.”

“Are you honestly going to tell me that you wanted Trent... vandal Trent... to be your first? Come on, Kat. You can do better than that. You certainly deserve better.”

She looked at me with that sexy smile. “And what would be better?”

He shimmied up closer and kissed my bare shoulder. “Come on. You’ve always known it was me, right? I’m the only one who’s right for you.”

I shrugged.

He kissed his way up to my neck, my ear and my temple while his hand worked its way down between my thighs. “Tell me I’m the one.”

“You’re going to have to prove yourself.”

His fingers glided through my wet folds. “You have no idea how I’ve missed you, Kat.”

I groaned my understanding, though the working of his fingers made it increasingly difficult to listen to what he said.

“You’ll see,” he whispered in my ear. “Wow, you’re so wet.” He licked his lips. “I want to get down there and suck on you, Kat. Have you ever had a hot mouth on your clit? Have you ever been licked and sucked until you’re screaming with ecstasy on top of your lungs?”

He pulled out my fingers from deep within me , covered with my juices and brought it to my mouth, dipping in so I couldn’t help but suck on his fingers. “Taste yourself, Kat. Taste how good you are.”

He brought his fingers out of my mouth and into his, licking his fingers while keeping his eyes intensely on mine. “So good,” he groaned. “Exquisite. I can feast of your juices all day all night.” He kissed me passionately, twisting his tongue with mine so I can taste myself again. “God, you intoxicate me, Kat. I want to fuck you right here on top of this desk.”

I moaned and wriggled my hip closer to his, and grabbed the hard bulge in my jeans. “Why don’t you?”

He kissed me and bit on my lower lips as he reluctantly pull away. “We have to wait, baby. But, I’ll make it up to you. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you. You have to believe how sorry I am about everything. Say you’ll forgive me.”

My eyelids heavy, I looked at him as he worked my clit into a frenzy again... until it begged for release. “How do I know it’s for real this time?”

He kissed me, his lips pressing over mine with such conviction. He groaned, not from arousal, but from hunger. “Give me a chance to prove it. You’re my queen, Kat. You’re my love... my lover... forever.”

“Love?” I said. I knew the word ‘love’ was often used as a euphemism for sex. ‘Give me your love.’ Sex. ‘I’m ready to love you.’ Sex. ‘Let’s show our love.’ Sex.

“Yes, Kat,” Kobe said. “I love you. I love you more than I ever realized. I guess I always have. I just didn’t want to admit it to myself.”

“What about all the bullying? You were mean to me, Kobe. Really mean.”

He shook his head. “Years ago, my father made it clear that I had to cut ties with you. What can I say? I was a stupid kid who just followed my dad’s orders without really thinking it through. But I can tell you this; not seeing you made me bitter. I grew angry. Angry at Dad. Angry at myself. Angry at the world. I took it out on a lot of people... you the most. I thought I can make you hate me so you’ll go away, far away from me. I thought I can turn away from you. When I first saw you sitting there in the cafeteria that day, my heart stopped, and I couldn’t breath. It was as if everything I’ve been suppressing for years all came out. I had to try to scare you away from me. We could not be together or I’ll lose everything. My family, my life as I’ve ever known... But now, now that I realize the depth of affection I have for you, there’s nothing that my father could say to make me leave you again. Nothing. I will forever cherish you. I’ll always be there for you. Trust me.”

“I’ll try,” I said. “I guess time will tell if I can really trust you or not.”

“I can live with that.” He looked at me, his eyes so filled with hope. “But... do you think you could ever love me? After all I’ve done?”

I smiled. “I guess that’s precisely what made this so hard all these years. We were apart but I knew how much I loved you, Kobe. I think I always have.”

His fingers resumed their gentle stroking.

“I always have, Kobe,” I whispered as I clung to him. “And I want you. I want you to be the first... the first and only.”

He kissed my nose. “I will be your first, but not now. Not like this, in Trent’s office, on Trent’s desk, with Trent’s unconscious body nearby. When I make love to you, it’ll be a night to remember.”