Forged Of Steele Bundle Part 25

"Kylie, you okay?"

His deep, husky voice had a comforting effect on her. "Oh, Chance, what are we going to do?"

"You didn't call the police, did you?"

"No."

"Good. I got a chance to talk to the both of them and-"

"Can you believe what they've done? Just wait until I see them. I'm going to-"

"Calm down, Kylie."

"Calm down? My child is out somewhere after midnight and you want me to calm down?"

"Yes. My child is out there, too. One good thing is that they're together."

"You think that's a good thing?"

"I trust Marcus, Kylie. He won't let anything happen to Tiffany. And he gave me his word that they won't do anything they aren't supposed to do."

Kylie glanced out her bedroom window. A fist tightened around her heart knowing her little girl was out there somewhere. "Yes, that's the same thing Tiffany said," she murmured quietly. "And you're right, we're going to have to trust them."

Kylie was quiet for a long while, then she said, "Did Marcus tell you why they did it?"

"Yes, he told me."

"I thought we acted pretty normal on Sunday night," she said.

"Yeah, but I guess they still picked up on something."

"Well, even if they thought we weren't on the best of terms, it wasn't any of their business!"

"Oh? You finally agree with me about that?"

Kylie frowned. "I'm serious, Chance."

"I've always been serious about that." He then asked, "Where are you now?"

"In my bedroom."

"How about going downstairs and putting some coffee on. I doubt if either of us will get much sleep tonight and if we're going to worry, we might as well do it together. I'm on my way over."

"All right. I'll have the coffee ready when you get here."

Chance made it to Kylie's house in less than ten minutes. She met him at the door with a cup of steaming hot coffee.

As if it was the most natural thing to do, he leaned over and kissed her lips. "You okay?" he asked quietly, after taking the cup from her hand and following her into her living room, where he sat down on the leather sofa beside her.

"Yes, I'm okay. But I'm still worried about them, Chance. I didn't think to ask how they were getting around. I a.s.sumed Marcus took his car."

Chance nodded after taking a sip of his coffee. "Yes, he has it. Boy, he's going to be grounded for life."

"So is Tiffany and she hasn't started driving yet. And just to think I had considered surprising her with a car for her sixteenth birthday. She might as well kiss that surprise goodbye."

"And they pulled this just to make a statement that they didn't like the way we acted on Sunday. If that doesn't beat all," Chance said.

"Yeah, I guess it means a lot to them for us to get along."

"But it's not like we argued or anything, Kylie."

She inhaled deeply. "I know but I guess they were watching us more closely then we thought. You have to admit we were rather distant to each other."

"Yes, we were," he readily admitted it. "And I didn't like it."

She met his gaze and said, "Neither did I."

After a few moments of silence she added, "Do you think we're doing the right thing by not calling the police?"

"Yes. But I did contact my brothers. There was no way I could not let them know. At least I was able to reach Bas and Morgan. Evidently Donovan is still somewhere out on the town and he isn't answering his cell. But I'll talk to him tomorrow. And I notified my cousins, as well, in case Marcus contacts them."

Kylie's nodded. "I forgot about your basketball game in the morning."

Chance shook his head. "Yeah, but there's no way I'm going to go anyplace until the kids come home."

"They will come home, won't they, Chance?"

When he heard the trembling in her voice, he set his cup on the table and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. It felt good to hold her again. "Yes, they'll come home. When they get hungry, they'll be back."

His words made Kylie smile. "Yeah, Tiffany definitely likes to eat."

"And so does Marcus."

Kylie cuddled deeper into Chance's warm embrace. It felt good to be held by a man who cared about her. A man who'd told her he loved her. A man she knew she could depend on. "Where do you think they'll sleep tonight?"

Chance shrugged. "Either in the car or at a hotel."

Kylie pulled back and looked at Chance. "Are they old enough to get a hotel room on their own?"

"It depends on where they go. To some hotel owners, money and not age is the determining factor."

Kylie really hadn't wanted to hear that. More than anything she had to remember that Tiffany said she and Marcus wouldn't do anything. She had promised.

"Come here and lay beside me. You must be tired."

She automatically did what he suggested without thinking twice about it. He stretched out his legs on the sofa to accommodate her and gently held her as they lay side by side. Before he had arrived, she had changed out of her nightgown into a pair of silk lounging pants and top. Heat curled through her when he wrapped his arms around her. It felt good knowing she wasn't alone now.

"Try to get some sleep."

"I don't think I can, Chance. I want my baby home." A few moments later, sleepily she said, "Did I ever tell you about the first time I let Tiffany sleep somewhere other than her own bed?"

"No, I don't think that you did."

"She was two and my parents had finally acknowledged that they had a grandchild and wanted some bonding time. At first I wasn't going to let her go but then Lena convinced me that I should. I barely slept that entire night knowing she wasn't in the house. I finally was able to sleep only after going into her room and stretching out on the floor beside her little bed. Now isn't that pathetic?"

"No, it sounds to me like you were a mother who had missed her child and needed the connection." After a few moments he added, "It works like that for adults, too, you know."

She lifted her head and met his gaze. "Does it?"

"Yes." He reached out and stroked her cheek with one finger. "You slept in my bed that one night but that's all it took for me to get used to your presence. All this week I found myself reaching out, as if you were still there, wanting that connection."

Kylie's stomach knotted when her gaze slipped to his mouth and she remembered how that mouth had driven her crazy in so many different ways. She remembered the taste of it, the feel of it. She also remembered something else. The amount of love she had in her heart for this one particular man.

"Oh, Chance." She reached up and tightened her arms around his neck at the same time she leaned up for his kiss.

With agonizing slowness he took her mouth, claimed it, branded it. His tongue made love to her mouth. The more it did, the more she became fully aware of the steady, strong arms holding her. They were protective arms. They were arms that would shield her from any storm, whether raging or mild. They were arms that would always be there to hold her when she needed to be held. It had been late in coming but she realized that now.

Moments later when he lifted his mouth she let out a satisfied sigh. "Thanks. I needed that."

He looked at her and smiled. "So did I."

Determined to maintain control of the situation he then said, "Now let's try to get some rest so we can be well-rested to give our kids h.e.l.l when they come back home."

"Yes, our our kids." Kylie said the words as if they suddenly had new meaning to her. kids." Kylie said the words as if they suddenly had new meaning to her.

As he pulled her closer she settled against his comforting muscular form and believed that from this time forward somehow everything was going to be all right.

"Mom?"

"Dad?"

Chance slowly opened his eyes. Had he been dreaming or had he actually heard Tiffany's and Marcus's voices? The first thing he noticed was that he was stretched out on the sofa with Kylie lying beside him, her head resting on his chest. That would not have been so bad if his hand wasn't possessively cupping her bottom or one of her legs wasn't entwined with his. Even her hand was resting pretty darn close to the fly on his jeans.

He sucked in a deep breath, letting the scent of her fill his nostrils. She was still asleep, but he could remember a time that weekend when he had patiently waited for her to wake up so that he could- "Dad?"

"Mom?"

Chance swallowed as he slowly glanced across the room and his gaze lit on two pairs of curious eyes. He blinked. No, make that three.

He quickly sat up and the movement startled Kylie out of a sound sleep. "Chance, what's wrong?" she asked sluggishly, slowly coming awake.

He shifted his gaze from the three sets of eyes to her still-drowsy ones. "Wake up, sweetheart, the kids are back," he whispered.

She blinked. "What?"

"The kids are home."

She was off the sofa in a flash. He had to catch her to keep her from stumbling. "Tiffany! Marcus! We've been so worried about you," she said hugging them so tight Chance wondered how they were able to breathe.

Then as if it finally hit her what they had done, she stepped back, placed her hands on her hips and gave them one h.e.l.l of a fierce frown. "The two of you have a lot of explaining to do."

"Seems they aren't the only ones," Donovan Steele said in a low voice, after clearing his throat.

Kylie jumped and jerked her head around. She hadn't seen Chance's youngest brother standing at the edge of the foyer. "Where did you find them?" she asked, tossing her mussed-up braids over her shoulders.

Before Donovan could answer, Tiffany said, "He didn't find us. We were with him the entire time. We spent the night over at his house."

"What?" That loud exclamation came from both Kylie and Chance at the same time.

"And we had so much fun," Marcus said, smiling. "The three of us played video games until-"

"What the h.e.l.l do you mean you were with him the entire time?" Chance shouted, coming to his feet beside Kylie.

"Dad, don't get mad at Uncle Donovan," Marcus said, rushing in. "I can explain."

Donovan smiled as he leaned against the wall. "Yes, Chance, let him explain. And trust me, it's a doozy. And I think you and Kylie might want to be sitting down when you hear it."

Chapter 16.

"Let me make sure I have this right," Chance said as he paced back and forth in front of the two teenagers, who were now the ones sitting on Kylie's sofa. To say they were in the hot seat was an understatement. "Are the two of you saying you aren't madly in love and that you never were?"

It had taken the kids twenty minutes to explain to their parents what it had only taken ten to confess to Donovan a few days ago. But Kylie and Chance had stopped them periodically to ask questions.

"Yes, Mr. Steele, that's what we're saying. Marcus and I are good friends and have been since the first day I started at Myers Park High. One day while talking we decided that neither you nor my mom had a life that didn't center around us, so we decided to give you one," Tiffany said, smiling.

Chance frowned. "You decided? Just like that?"

"Yes, sir, we decided just like that. Wasn't that cool?"

Kylie came to stand next to Chance. "No, that wasn't cool. Did it ever occur to either of you that we liked the life we had?"

"Yes, it did occur to me, but then I wondered what you would do when I left for college in a few years, Mom," Tiffany said quietly. "Just the thought of you being here all alone almost made me give up the idea of leaving home and going off to school. But then I figured it wouldn't be fair for me to give up my life just because you didn't have one. So I decided to help you find one. And when Marcus mentioned how handsome his dad was, and I told him how beautiful you are, we decided the two of you would make the perfect solid soul."

Chance lifted a confused brow. "Solid soul?"