Page 57 of His Dark Hunger

Number Ten Aspen Way.

Her heart skipped a beat. Aspen Way had been the cul-de-sac she’d lived on with Graham and the boys when they were younger. Seeing it written on one of Kyle’s documents was downright perturbing and clawed at her escalating apprehension.

“It’s a strange coincidence.” Her voice quivered as she allowed the piece of paper to fall into its folder, but despite her growing reticence, she found herself skipping through the files to investigate another.

Selecting one, she delved into the file and slid out the document.

Ken Donaldson, resident of Number Six, Aspen Way.

The tension in her tummy tightened until it was painful. Two residents of an identical street—the same street she’d lived on for years—was way more than a coincidence.

It meant something.

Fishing the paper from the open file, she read the information carefully. The Donaldsons had been residents at around the same time as the Kendals, but why did Kyle have paperwork on them? Scanning the document further, the answer smacked her in the face.

The paper in her hand was a record of their tenancy agreement, and Kyle, it seemed, had been their landlord.

The room around her swayed as the line ran through her head again.

Kyle was their landlord.

She dropped the paper into the file, staring at the wood paneling ahead. How the fuck was he their landlord?

Cold dread tingled at her fingertips as she searched through the files again. She hadn’t mentally noted what she was looking for, but as she perused, there was no doubt what letter was on her mind.

K for Kendal.

Nausea stirred her unease, threatening to make it to her throat as she found the last agreement she ever wanted to see—the evidence that proved there was an existing link between her family and her lover—a connection he’d failed to mention once in the days she’d spent with him.

Pulling the Kendal paperwork from its file, she pushed the drawer closed and leaned against it. Her heart was galloping so fast, she had to pull in a deep breath to focus on the tiny, typed font.

Graham Kendal.She couldn’t take in any more air as her eyes stilled over her late husband’s name.Of Two Aspen Way.

Hoping the daylight would reveal she’d been imagining the details, she moved closer to the nearest window and let the pane take the weight of her as she rested her forehead againstit. The light, though, only reasserted what she thought she’d seen.

“Fuck.” She closed her eyes, unable to witness the hard truth.

Two Aspen Way was the house they’d raised their children in until, shortly after Graham’s passing, she’d received a hasty eviction notice. Kyle—the man she’d fallen head over heels in love with—had been their landlord at the time. Her. Landlord—for years—but she’d known nothing about him or the connection until that moment!

“Oh my God.” The paper fell from her fingers, fluttering to the carpet below. “He sent the eviction notice that catapulted me into a financial shitstorm.”

Tears blurred in her eyes as she struggled to comprehend the ramifications of what it all meant, and all at once, the attire that had once been so sexy and provocative morphed into something cheap and dirty. Was her lover—the hero who’d swooped in to save her—nothing but a villain, and if hewasinnocent, why had he never mentioned the fact he’d owned the home she shared with Graham?

“Little girl?” Kyle’s inquiring tone shook her from her woe, and turning, she saw him already inside the room, his arms folded across his chest. “Want to tell me why you’re reading my files?”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Consequences

Kyle

The delivery driver had wanted to make small talk, but Kyle hadn’t been in the mood. He rarely enjoyed pleasantries at the best of times but never when he had the smoking-hot woman of his dreams in his study waiting for him.

He managed to get rid of the interruption as soon as possible, signing for the consignment Leonard had ordered and scowling that the delivery should have been taken to the rear of the property. He’d need to speak to the chef about it. Without a housekeeper, Leonard had reverted to ordering his own ingredients again, and apparently, he hadn’t bothered to inform the driver where to deliver the goods.

It doesn’t matter.He sagged against the front door as he pushed it closed.I’m not going to sweat the small stuff. Not now that I have Amy.

It only took a moment to stride across the vestibule, past the table he’d fucked her over, and along the narrow corridor that led to his study. The unexpected delivery had taken the shine off his throbbing need, but he knew it wouldn’t take much of Amy’s display to bring his cock to attention again.

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