Right Imperfections |✔ [Book 1 of Runaway Bride Series]

26. Everyone Has Secrets

Dan

The taste of her was lingering on my tongue like a well aged whiskey that stayed with you for long. I could feel her terse fingers as they pressed into my back and her long silky hair as it fell on my skin. Everything about her was delicious like a fruit well ripened. The fruit of patience.

I obviously meant it when I told her I'd hesitated a thousand times when I wanted to kiss her but the act had left me wanting for more and my fingers were taut on the steering wheel as I drove down the roads to the office building.

I wasn't off work. I was always on work. Saturday, Sunday, holiday whatever. Father would only appreciate my effort if I showed my absolute devotion to our company.

But then I knew what a devil he was and what my relationship with McKenna would appear to him. A victory. I'd successfully wooed the defence lawyer and we'd win the case with all our low handed techniques. That's what this whole set up was to him.

If I could tell him how far from the truth he was. I drove to the complex and the gates slid open as they recognised my car. I waved at the guards on weekend duty and they hardly seemed surprised to see me here since they'd seen it forever.

I pulled up in front of the main entrance and climbed out of the car tossing the keys to the guard just beyond the glass doors.

A few people were still at work, those who were assigned major projects and I smiled at everyone of them who wished me. I rode the elevator with those personnel animatedly chatting about the last ball game.

"Mr. Kingsley, Mr. Jacobs is here to see you." My secretary said from her desk.

I nodded at her, "two coffees," and headed to my office. And Mr. Jacobs was standing there in the middle of the office looking at the large replica of my new housing complex project. I'd just finished building it a few days ago and I remembered the nights I could stay up because my brain wouldn't shut up about Princess.

"Eli." I hollered as I stepped in and he turned around, his face brightening up with a smile.

"Dan." He took my hand and then tossed his arms over my shoulder pulling me in for a surprise hug.

"You aren't so scrawny anymore." I smirked recalling the thin, lanky kid from my college days. Eli was my junior at college and attended the engineering advanced lectures in which I was a teaching assistant.

He was the typical bullied and ragged kid until he dropped everything and enrolled in the army. That straightened him out and made his life much successful. Now he was a successful private detective who'd served as a Peace Corp in Sudan and also aided in many disaster rescues.

"It's been too long, brother. The scrawny kid got whipped out of me." He said rubbing his knuckles into the back of his head.

"You make army sound like a nazi camp, man." I responded going around him to the glass wall and he followed.

"For me it was. Until I learnt what the true essence of it was. It definitely changed my life." He looked out into the sky and I watched him. The same guy I'd saved from a beating and had watched roam the hostel in his boxers was now an ex-army officer and his body was built like a warrior, like a true fighter.

"I'm glad that you agreed." I said, turning toward the skies myself. He was damned good at his work and who else but him to keep my secrets hidden.

"I could say I owed you but you hardly seemed like the sort to use force. You've gone soft, Kingsley. Daddy keeping you fed?" He said, clearly mocking me because he knew very well what daddy did to his beloved son.