He dropped his hand from his head and allowed it to rest on the thick, corded-muscled back of the stallion as he strode farther inside with the animal.
Frustration with just about everything, hair included, was riding him as hard as he’d just ridden the horse. He gave the animal a consoling, swift pat.
But not nearly as hard as he wanted...scratch that, needed...to ride a woman. And not just any woman would do. The image of who he wanted beneath him rolled into his mind.
As if the thought had the right to take up residence in his mind. As though he’d given her the right.
As soon as the accompanying image entered his thoughts, Key growled low in his throat.
The mental images and thoughts pissed him off more than the past twenty-four hours had. And after the past twenty-four hours he’d had, he could do without them.
His mind still reeled, spinning the information over and over, thinking of what he’d learned...and how he would tell his brother.
He shook his head, blowing out a disgusted breath. He shelved that problem to another part of his brain for later contemplation.
He had enough on his plate as it was. There was no time to wonder how he was going to figure out how to deal with the skeleton in his family closet he’d recently discovered and what it meant for him and Nick.
Finding out what his mother had done was hard enough for him to swallow. The fact that he and Nick weren’t their father’s biological sons was something that hurt like hell. Not that he and Nick hadn’t always suspected they weren’t the biological sons of Alek Kealoha, the man who raised them.
But to see in black-and-white, in the form of his mother’s personal letters he’d found, which chronicled her life from the time she was a young woman to her death, and what he’d learned, was something else entirely.
He sighed. In actuality, it was something he and his brother had talked about for years, the suspicion that Alek wasn’t their natural father, but because they loved him unconditionally, they’d mutually agreed to shelve the discussion. Permanently.
Although they resembled their mother, their blue eyes had always been a source of question. But neither his mother nor father ever spoke about it, even though others never seemed to have a hard time gossiping about it. Not that he or Nick had ever suffered because of it. Despite their lack of resemblance to their father, their family had been tight-knit.
Yet he felt a rising anger at his mother’s duplicity and felt guilty as hell. And the fact that he had been the one to go through her personal things had been a given.
Throughout her illness, it had been made obvious to Key that his father wouldn’t be able to handle that task after her death. He was too close to her, loved her too much to deal with the pain. As for Nick...no way was his twin going to do it. Key had been told that in no uncertain terms.
There was no one else, and Key had shouldered the responsibility.
As Key had begun the cheerless task of sorting through his mother’s belongings, he’d stumbled upon her diary.
Really, calling it a diary was a stretch. It was a collection of...letters.
At first glance, Key had seen the letters, bundled together and tied with a satin bow, and thought them love letters between his parents, and had set them aside for his father to peruse, not wanting to read something he thought to be intimate exchanges between his parents.
When he’d seen another man’s name on one letter, his hand paused in the act of placing them aside. Despite his inner voice telling him he didn’t need to tread there...he did. He’d read the letters.
And been stunned to learn of his mother’s transgression. How she’d fled Hawaii as a young woman, away from their father, and fallen in love with another man.
And had given birth, upon her return, nine months later to twin boys—he and his brother, Nick.
A’Kela had passed on last year and, despite the lies, he, Nick and their father had loved her desperately. And missed her just as desperately.
It was obvious to Key that his father had known of their true parentage. Yet he’d never said a word. And he’d accepted Key and Nick as his own, never treating them as anything but his sons.
Key drew in a deep breath. Too many skeletons.
For all of that going on, she still remained the primary thought running roughshod inside his head.
“And that’s saying a whole helluva lot, considering the type of day I’ve had,” he muttered. “Damn.” The curse was torn from his throat, grunted low.
Even as he blamed her, he knew she wasn’t the one to blame. It seemed lately she’d been running ’round in his head so much, it was becoming the norm to fault her for everything from the constant stream of women tramping in and out to tour the Kealoha Ranch in an effort to see the Dynamic Duo, the cheesy nickname he and his brother seemed to be stuck with due to the reality show about the ranch, to the state of his constant hard-on.
He adjusted the front of his jeans absently and walked the stallion farther inside. No sooner had he’d walked inside than his steps halted and his gaze narrowed as it slid over the occupants of the massive stable.
He checked his irritation, barely, after seeing the small gathering of film crew that still lingered inside.
In the mood he was in, that was just what he needed to make his day complete.
“Damn,” he growled as he walked his animal toward its stall.
After a long day helping his men brand the new shipment of cattle, including two new prize bulls, seeing his stable still teeming with film crew added more fuel to the fire already burning.
Yeah, that was just what the hell he needed.
Squashing the immediate need to tell them to get the hell off his property, Key gritted his jaw and recalled why he’d allowed the TV film crew on his family’s property in the first place.
Family, ranch and preserving Hawaii. Those, and those alone, were his reasons for putting up with the intrusion into the daily lives of him and his family, ranch family included.
The attention from the show helped to bring awareness to the Aloha Keiki, the foundation his mother had started, which helped young, disadvantaged youth bring in much needed money to the poorer communities on the island. The money specifically was designated to help with agriculture, as well as scholarship opportunities for those who aspired to go to college. Through gardening and the community orchard his family had started years ago, which the children and volunteers tended to, the money it generated went to those families in need in the small town near the Kealoha Ranch.
At times the burden of responsibility and decisions he and Nick made on a daily basis, without their father’s input, due to his recovery from the stroke he’d had after their mother’s death, was overwhelming.
But it was a responsibility that he and his twin shouldered willingly.
Although when it came to the attention the show had given the ranch, his “player” of a brother was having less difficulty than Key because of the added attention from women.
He’d agreed to allow the television crew to come in and film the lives of the men and women who worked the Kealoha Ranch to bring awareness, globally, to the impact of ranching in Hawaii as well attention for their mother’s foundation. The desire he and his family had to preserve the environment while forging ahead in the new generation was a cause important to the Kealoha family.
It was what his father wanted, what he promised his wife he would always champion. A’Kela’s recent passing had left a hole in their lives that could never be filled.
To that end, Key, Nick and their father, Alekanekelo Kealoha, had made sure