Superstar: Affairs of the Heart - Briarwood Series

By Kew Townsend

Superstar

Secrets and shadows...

Kaine Walker, the lead singer of the super rock band Hurrikaine, continues to unearth the mysteries of Hurrikaine's history in the errie, subterranean archives of the in the medieval castle Briarwood.

Will he discover more lies to lock him away from everything he loves?

Everyone loved him…

but he had no one to love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kew Townsend
• Release date: Feb 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9781539538530

Book preview

Chapter One

POSSESSION

January 5, 1990

Briarwood Castle,

Briarwood Estate,

Surrey, England

Did you actually believe his taking you away would stop me?

She hesitated, longing to reach out and touch his smooth angelic face.

Absolutely beautiful.

His angel eyes were closed and she became mesmerized by his every breath. He lay beside her … he moved closer, rolling into her … stretching his naked body, long and cat-like … pressing his hot flesh against hers, while his masculine scent flooded her senses, weakening her resolve.

His sweet-scented breath circled hers as his lips touched her neck lightly, releasing a watershed of chills to run rampant up and down the top of her skin. Each celebratory wave danced with delight, simply because of his closeness to her. She’d missed him. His soft lips lightly brushed the column of her neck, as if the shadow of a cloud touched her, but the animal in him was aroused and ready to pounce, to tear her away from everything she knew and loved. And when he was aroused like this, she’d always swooned with delight.

She closed her eyes tighter … bit by bit he moved closer, closer, up and on top, shifting his weight to fit into every crevasse of hers. She welcomed him while his dangerous love continued to overpower her. His hair fragrant, tickled as he drug it over her face seconds before his moist loving lips kissed her, gently at first, his hard love patiently waiting ... but promising … she didn’t have much time ...

She knew he wouldn’t give her much more than seconds to decide before he took her and hard. He’d been, too long without her and starved for the feel of her. His robust soft hands caressed her everywhere … in her hair, on her breasts and then inside… He overwhelmed her destroying any barriers between them, and there would be no tenderness once his iron-hard maleness arrived.

She saw him clearly in her mind, his sparkling clear eyes so blue, lighting up the world, always dazzled by the sight of her. Always forgiving her trespasses with the other. Always loving her, ‘you’re mine Babe,’ he’d say.

He whispered near her ear. At first, his words were difficult to hear … no, it wasn’t that … she felt apprehensive, afraid to listen to his words.

"You’ve joined me in your deepest sleep because this is the only place I have to reach you, besiege you to listen to my argument. I’ll deliver my defense because I know you believe this of me, I love you, and I’ll never accept you living without me.

"You miss me … my touch, my kisses, my pleasures, and desires.

"You miss the thrill of the fast pace, the action, and excitement of the million dollar deals, the travel, but mostly how I’d put you at the center — where you had control — the feeling of real power.

"I did that!

And you loved me … how you loved me on Christmas Eve, and later in the desert, you loved me passionately with your open heart, bathing me in the depths of your sweet, powerful, love. You’ve filled my life with a new meaning I’d never believed possible for me. Babe, our love will never end … never … until one of us dies … and I pity the one left alone.

She saw his smile, his straight white teeth, and full kissable lips always demanding that she smothered him with her kisses, and when he’d smiled at her. It was true, the entire world lit up brightly. He pressed her mouth to his and delivered a one-of-a-kind kiss that wiped her mind clear of the other.

The other, he’d been the only man that made her feel this special. As if there were, no others like her to bring to the surface his voracious love that swallowed her whole, to drown in his unfathomable love.

She swooned, losing her breath; Luka loved her with a strange love that might kill her. His darkest secrets were out, and she’d confirmed how dangerous he could be. She knew he would never allow any other man to steal her away from him, anyone. For a long time, she’d felt safe and secure with him; well, most of the time, but two weeks ago, her faith in him had been shattered, replaced by a new conviction that she would never forgive him.

He pushed in farther, harder, his overly generous fullness reminding her she'd never get comfortable because he was only a dream away, ready to puncture a giant hole in her resolve to love the other.

You see, I’ve proven to you once again that you love me too because you haven’t stopped me, haven’t awakened to end your pleasures with me. Instead, you are opening wider to accept me, surrendering to me, to my kisses, to the hardness I feel for you and the wonders of loving with me.

Higher and harder, he pushed, forcing her sighs to grow louder as he moved deeper, wrapping his strong contoured arms around her body, swallowing her, he moved fast, hard.

The familiar scent of him drove her to be close, even closer, to become one with him. The taste of him fired her every breath, his long blond hair tickling her cheeks as he seeped into her soul, his to take as only he could.

He called, and she had to answer.

She knew he’d done what he needed to, because she, too, betrayed him. He’d told her he wanted to start new with her, and she’d thrown away the last of his tender love and trust because of the other … well, the other was magnificent!

His sweet persuasive words of love were destroying her wall of resolve brick-by-brick.

You are my greatest love. I love you. I need you, as he pushed in harder, bringing the fire and the love as only he could deliver.

She let go …

Luka loved her, scorching her with his passionate ways, how he wanted … with his hot desires and what he’d called ‘fucking her brains out,’ bringing the exotic varieties she’d come to expect from his taste and demanding needs. With nothing to stop him, his kisses swamped her, no moment allowed to catch even a slight breath.

He overwhelmed her and took her with him, far away, to the place where no one would ever take her away from him again. She became his willing prisoner. She couldn’t stop the thrill of him, the waves, and waves of building pleasure that hit her.

No chance to recover.

No chance to survive.

No, No, No! she screamed out.

But his words ... were true. She did love him. She didn’t want to, it wasn’t right. The words rolled easily at first, a whisper and then louder.

…I love you, Luka, I do….

The pounding rhythm, in and out hard, never-ending, wasn’t going to stop, hoping he wouldn’t. He remained precious to her. A brilliant gift. She couldn’t imagine living without him to fill her days, his love demanding it would destroy her. Soon she would completely surrender. She couldn’t fight him … the feelings too strong. She would let him take her with him...

"I never told you I was a good man. You insisted on seeing me with romantic eyes and I couldn’t convince you otherwise. Remember I told you, ‘I’m not what you think Holly. I’m not a nice chap, I’ve never been. And neither is Kaine.’

"Remember? You’d argued, ‘You’re not evil Luka. I know you must have done things you’re not proud of.’ You’ve no idea, Babe. And you are wrong. I know Lucifer extremely well. Evil is a strong aphrodisiac, and I don’t fool myself — I’m as evil as they come.

"Bear in mind, after I confessed my ghastly involvement in London, you climbed on the plane with me. I did tell you … you were mine, and you’ve never told me different. You’ve loved me from the first day in Chelsea, falling into my arms. Did you think I’d ever let you go … especially to him?

"I know you feel some allegiance to him because you are inherently good and wholeheartedly believe that going with him is the only possibility. Your conscience dictates he is the correct choice. But I live in the badlands, a place where conventions and conscience exist. I live by my rules. I can change them; always have been able to, except one thing … your heart … what I covet most. There is no long kiss goodbye for us, Babe.

"I found with you, someone I’d long forgotten, me, and a joy, a happiness, and then contentment with you. I love you, and you can’t forget me. I’ll come back for you.

"Wait for me … wait for me … we are not finished …

"I’m coming for you. I can’t breathe without you.

"I won’t live without you.

And if I have to, I’ll take you with me to knock on Heaven’s door.

Holly thrashed about tormented in her bed.

His words echoed…

Holly thrashed about in her bed tormented, wrapping around the pillow.

His words echoed…

I love you, always will … always will.

His scent drifted like a whirling cloud in and out of her mind, then his words, passionate, powerful … true.

She raised her head to drink in one more of his exciting kisses hoping to wipe his obsessive words from her thoughts.

She struggled, fighting against the deep sleep … slowly she started … opening her heavy eyelids for a moment.

She closed them ... fought to open them again.

She rolled over … and slowly opened her eyes.

She stared up at the coffered ceiling.

Fuck…

***

Kaine held his head tightly as he leaned on the wall in the belly of Briarwood Castle. He couldn’t move. His head ached from having the back of his head bashed in and the pain stabbed at him, in and out, as if with red-hot pokers. He didn’t think he’d be able to take the few steps toward the phone to ring upstairs for Jeffries to come quickly and assist him.

This had been what everyone feared that his injuries would be exacerbated. Why he needed complete bed rest, not foraging around like an archeologist in the dark, dusty archives searching for his lost past.

His mind shook. He remained on one side of the black misty partition while on the other side, sat the crucial memory. The one the mist would no longer allow.

The pounding in his head became a raucous staccato rhythm, and instead of crying out in agony, he turned and walked back into the soothing mist. His body went limp on the chaise and he slipped into unconsciousness.

Chapter Two

HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE

January 6, 1990

She’d experienced a horrid night. Her mind filled with twisting worry and then searing guilt. She bounced back and forth like a ball in a tennis game. The nasty dream, real and disturbing on many levels. She felt sick in her stomach from the shame.

Hell was still living between these two men.

Her heavy dream state had been like a thick shroud pressing on her mind and yet transparent as if able to see beyond her captive state like an out-of-body experience.

She couldn’t feign off the feeling of being trapped, as if buried under two inches of a deep sleep, causing her to be available to him, but not strong enough to move, stop him, or utter a sound. Then she’d blurted out the horrifying confession.

She’d been deep in the sleep, but that didn’t change her feeling of disgust at how helpless, she’d been drifting in and out of the dream, unable to redirect the moments she’d been experiencing, aware she remained caught between the netherworld and reality.

She wondered if this was how it was in the mist that Kaine described, unable to decide his own fate, caught between here and there.

She’d fought for her freedom and inched her way out by pushing, struggling through the thick dream state like trying to walk barefoot in three-foot snow drifts. She’d finally awakened, to Kaine’s relapse and that had been too much. Attacked with nausea, her head spun, threatening to drop her to the floor lost in a surreal world.

Kaine lay unconscious next to her on the bed, lost in the dark mist he’d explained protected him, but from what? What had he remembered that had been that traumatic the mist rolled in and took him away, far away from her to the outer lands?

Jeffries found him and it took them and the nurse, Clarisse, to get him up the many stairs to the bedchamber.

Clarisse’s prognosis had flattened Holly’s hopes, she couldn’t help Kaine, and no one else could either.

We can make him comfortable until he wakes up, Clarisse instructed.

Woke up, and what if he never did?

Holly couldn’t sleep, read, or watch television. She couldn’t focus on anything. Red-hot tears burned her eyes. Kaine was acting strong, brave, laboring to find himself, to search his past to discover what kind of man he’d become for her and his baby.

He did love them.

Nothing could happen to him, he had to turn in the mist and come back to her, awaken, because she couldn’t accept any other outcome. She needed him, his love, and to see his gorgeous eyes fill with a father’s unconditional love when she placed his newborn child in his arms.

Kaine had to awaken.

She waved her hand as if to banish any more thoughts of losing him as quickly as her former husband Jon and her unborn baby.

Her hand went to her belly and whispered. Don’t leave me.

She lay beside him, her fingertips lightly stroking his arm, his chest, his stunning face, begging the mist to bring him back, while she glanced at the blizzard howling outside the white window beyond him that made sure no one could come to help him.

Fucking storms…

Exhausted, she closed her eyes for a quick moment … too late.

***

Luka waited … staring at her with his