Free Acceptance (Club X Book 5) by K.M. Scott

how direct his question was, I took a deep breath. There was no point in lying. I wasn’t ashamed of anything I’d done.
    “No.”
    He studied my face for a moment before he spoke again. “You went there to meet him because you think he’s my brother?”
    “Yes. Alexandria told me the story a few weeks ago, and I wanted to see for myself. So I found out where he works and followed him to that coffee shop.”
    Kane sighed and hung his head. “Why? You could have been hurt. What if he was some guy who kidnaps and rapes women?”
    I reached over to touch his shoulder. “I’m not some virginal girl who doesn’t know a thing or two about bad men. I haven’t always been with you. I was smart about it. I caught up with him in a public place in broad daylight. I was never in any danger, baby.”
    Kane turned his head to face me, and I saw the worry in his eyes. “I remember, Abbi. I’ve spent every minute of my life with you making sure you don’t have to, though.”
    “I know you want to protect me. I get that. It’s who you are, and I love you for it. No woman has a more wonderful or more protective husband than I do. It’s just that I’m not some naïve child who needs to be shielded from things, Kane. I’m a grown woman and your wife, but sometimes it feels like you treat me like one of the kids.”
    He closed his eyes and leaned back on the bed so his head was in my lap. When he opened them, he nodded. “I just want to be the kind of man for you that my mother never had. She worried about everything, and it made her bitter and hateful to my father. I don’t want you to ever have to worry.”
    “I love that you want to be that for me, baby,” I said as I ran my fingers through his soft, black hair, longer now than when we first met. “I just wish you could see that I can be more than someone you have to protect. You can share things with me. Even bad things, Kane, because when you don’t and you keep them from me, I end up worrying anyway.”
    He thought about what I said for a minute and smiled before sitting up to face me. “Did you tell him you thought he was our brother?”
    Shaking my head, I thought about my brief encounter with Sebastian at the coffee shop near his house and chuckled. “No. I never planned to do that. I just wanted to see for myself if he could be another son of Cassian March. He looks the part, but other than that, all I found out was he’s a little like I imagine Stefan would be if he was single. Definitely a player.”
    A serious look came over Kane’s face. “Did he hit on you?”
    “No, not so much hit on me. I got the feeling he doesn’t see anyone out of his reach, though.”
    Relieved to hear Sebastian hadn’t tried to get into my pants, Kane nodded in agreement with my description of the guy’s attitude toward women. “He’s definitely cocky.”
    “So do you think he’s your brother?”
    “I don’t know. He looks a lot like me and Cash, but so far my guy hasn’t found out anything that proves he’s another son.”
    “Now that you’ve met him, do you want him to be?”
    Kane’s eyebrows rose. “The jury’s still out on that.”
    I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Do you know why I wanted to see if he was another son of your father’s?”
    “No. Did Alexandria make it seem like it was important to find him?” Kane asked, clearly in the dark about why I would bother to search out this person.
    “No, I did it because he’d be like you. From what she said, he never really knew his father either. I just thought if you knew someone was out there who was like you in that way that you’d want to know about him.”
    Kane kissed me softly on the lips in that way he did when he wanted me to know how much he loved me without saying it. “If you know me so well, how could you think I’d ever cheat on you, Abbi?”
    I hated that I’d been so stupid to think that this man who gave me everything he was without hesitation would go with anyone else. Deep in