MemoriesofParadise (10 page)

Chapter Sixteen

Riana fought the man in her dream. She knew it was a dream, a nightmare really. She’d had it before, which was why she never wanted to research who she was and where Holly’s father could be found.

Just as he had done in every other nightmare he’d haunted, the man forced himself on her while others watched and laughed. How could something so vile, so depraved happen to such a young girl? She wasn’t positive, but she suspected that was how Holly had been conceived. Riana wasn’t sure she wanted to know the truth. Would it change her feelings for her daughter, knowing that she’d been conceived in violence, in rape?

In just about every dream she had, Riana scratched and bit, trying to get the man off her, but there was no stopping him. And just when she thought she would have to relive the violation another time, she heard someone calling her name, only it wasn’t really her name. Her name was—

“Riana, wake up! It’s just a dream. It’s a dream, sweetheart. Wake up.”

The low timbre of the male voice should scare her. Who was this lying next to her, cradling her in his arms as though he had a right to do so?

“I’m awake.” She pushed away from him. “Where am I? Who are you?” Wrenching free of his hold, Riana jumped out of the bed and turned to look at the man who had saved her from a repeat of her nightmare. “And what am I doing in this bed with you?”

For years, she’d repeatedly suffered through that violation. She never told anyone of it. She didn’t dare. Everyone already looked on her with pity. She was always the poor young woman who had no memory and a child for whom she couldn’t even produce a biological father, not to mention a man she could call dad. The last thing she wanted was their pity because she’d suffered a violation she could only remember in her worst nightmares.

“Thank the gods you woke up.” The large blond man pushed his hair out of his face and looked up at her with what appeared to be relief. “Doc Parker couldn’t understand why you wouldn’t wake up. He said your pupils were working the way they should and that you didn’t appear to have a concussion, but you wouldn’t wake up.”

“Doc Parker?” Riana frowned and put a hand to her aching head. She felt the bandage wrapped around her and remembered the stitches and the plane crash. She spun around. “Where’s Holly? Where’s my daughter?”

She remembered waking up in the doctor’s office, house, or whatever it was, and Holly had been there, but God knew her memory was faulty. Perhaps that had been a dream as well and Holly had perished in the plane with almost everyone else.

“Where’s my daughter?” She could hear the hysteria in her voice as she got louder, demanding that he tell her the truth.

“I’m right here, Mom. Geeze. You could wake the dead with all of that screeching.” Holly looked at the bed, her eyes going wide. “You work fast, don’t you?” She walked over to the desk, picked up a bottle of water, opened it, and took a long drink.

“I was staying with your mother. She slipped into some kind of coma last night. We couldn’t wake her. We called in Doc Parker and he thought it best to stay close.”

“A coma?” Holly laughed. “It wasn’t a coma. Mom doesn’t sleep once she gets one of her
feelings
.”

Riana frowned at Holly’s use of the word. It was almost as though her daughter didn’t believe that she felt the evil following them.

“When she doesn’t sleep for a day or two, she just passes out anywhere she feels safe like some kind of narcoleptic or something.”

Clay, that was his name, turned to her and smiled. “You felt safe with me—with us?”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Holly said. “She would have felt safe with a Chihuahua if she didn’t feel the evil here in town. When she feels the evil, she has nightmares.”

Riana stared at her daughter, her mouth open. How did she know that?

“Don’t look so surprised, Mom. I’m a big girl now. I know things you don’t want me to know. I know that you wonder if my dad,” she paused and shook her head. “No that’s the wrong word. You wonder if my biological father is the man you dream forcing himself on you.” She grimaced with a shrug. “You get loud when you have the nightmares. Haven’t you wondered why they haven’t been lasting as long lately? That’s why I’ve been blasting my stereo at odd hours.”

“Oh, honey. I had no idea you—”

“That I put two and two together?” Holly sighed. “I’m not a baby anymore, Mom. It’s not going to scar me so much that I kill myself or anything. I’d like to know that I was conceived with love, but I’m not stupid enough to think you would ever blame me for something that isn’t my fault. I might not have been conceived in love, but I was born in love and I’ve known your love every day of my life, Mom. I love you and I know you love me. You show me that every time you drag me from one town to take me to another.”

Riana’s throat and eyes burned with unshed tears. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”

Holly set her bottle down, walked to Riana and hugged her. “You loved me, Mom. Even though you think the worst about the man who helped make me, you still loved me with all of your heart. That’s what you did.”

Riana held her daughter for the longest time in months. After Holly turned sixteen, she’d deemed herself too old for that kind of thing and Riana had respected her daughter’s wishes, but she missed this.

Stepping out of Riana’s embrace, Holly swiped the back of her hand over her face. “And if you ever tell any of my friends I said that, I’ll deny it.”

Riana wiped a tear from her daughter’s face with a smile and cupped her cheek. “Of course you will.”

“Okay,” Holly said, crossing her arms and raising a brow. “What I want to know is, what this man was doing in your bed when you’re wearing nothing but a t-shirt.” She turned toward the door to her room and gave Riana the thumbs-up sign. “You have a lot to tell me, Mother dear.”

Yes, she
did
have a lot to tell her daughter, beginning with the story of her memory loss and the subsequent birth of her child. She would finally have to own up to the fact that she had no idea how her child was conceived, though she had her suspicions. If Holly could deal with knowing the truth, she could do no less.

However, knowing that Holly was finally old enough to understand the truth of her conception felt as though a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

Riana watched as Holly left the room to go watch more TV, no doubt, before turning to Clay with a frown. “What
were
you doing sleeping with me?”

It wasn’t as though she didn’t appreciate his waking her before the ultimate bad part, but he had no right just to crawl into bed with her like that. She barely knew the man, for goodness sake.

“I told your daughter the answer to that already. You seemed to have slipped into a coma. How were we to know that that was something normal for the Riana-on-the-run?” He gave her a one-shoulder shrug. “We thought you had slipped into a coma because of your concussion.”

“And that made it okay to crawl into bed with a woman who didn’t know you from Adam?”

“Adam is our…mayor. You know him?”

“Now you’re being deliberately obtuse. You know exactly what I meant. I don’t know you from the next strange man. Why would I want you in my bed?”

“Would you rather I had slept on the cold floor, or perhaps I should have stayed in the desk chair all night?”

“Stop making me sound unreasonable!” She paced away from him. “After…after that kiss we shared, I can only assume that you crawled into bed with me because you wanted to take that kiss farther.”

“And if I said what you suggested was the truth? What would you say then?” He stood up, his pajama bottoms riding low on his hips.

Riana tried not to look at his perfectly muscled back and then his well-sculpted washboard abs when he spun around to look at her.

“I can tell you one thing, my sweet. I will never force myself on you. Not like that.” He looked away from her as though he didn’t quite believe what he said and didn’t want her to see the lie in his eyes.

“Why do I get the feeling that you want that to be the truth, but you aren’t really sure that it
is
the truth?”

Chapter Seventeen

Shit, shit shit!

Clay stared at the beautiful woman in front of him and tried to find a way to answer her that would be the truth, but not scare the living hell out of her.

He couldn’t very well tell her that he and Gunter could shift their shape into that of a lion. Nor could he tell her that if either of them were very likely to assault her that it would be Gunter—especially since he knew that it wouldn’t necessarily be the entire truth.

Even now, he could feel the heat of the
el calor
bathing his innards. It was only a matter of time before the pain he felt was the same as what Gunter must already feel. It got worse with each passing moment he spent in her presence. It wasn’t any wonder that Gunter had insisted Clay be the one to stay with her through the night. He probably didn’t trust himself to be alone with her for so long.

“It’s nothing. Just know that there isn’t a man in this town who wouldn’t die to protect you. The men of Paradise have taken the protection of the women here seriously since the town was founded.”

He didn’t offer the information that for a while the men in the town thought protecting the women meant enslaving them. That time was over, however, and didn’t need mentioning. Now that Adam Greer had taken his rightful place as alpha, the men took their responsibilities seriously and they once again protected their women as they should be protected—with love and respect.

“If you’ll excuse me, I’d like to go get dressed. I’ll send Gunter in here while I change. If you’ll go into the bathroom and get dressed, we’ll go out for something to eat and a trip to the nearest department store in Mason.” Turning, he headed for the room that he and Gunter shared.

“Just tell me one more thing before you go.”

Closing his eyes, Clay fisted his hands at his sides. He wasn’t sure he could answer more questions if they ran along the same vein as her last. As much as he didn’t want to tell her what they were just yet, the woman needed to know that she was playing with fire. He didn’t turn around when he answered, “Yes?”

“Why is the dresser sitting in front of my door? Did you think I’d sleepwalk and leave the room or something?”

“No.” He shook his head. “It was nothing like that.” There was no way to tell her the truth without frightening her and he refused to lie to her about it. “The sheriff visited us last night while you were unconscious. Apparently, a man visited Doc Parker asking about you and Holly. When the sheriff came to warn us, we decided the best way to protect you both without all of us holing up in the same room was to barricade the doors. That way, the only way into the room was the windows and no one is getting through that glass without making a hell of a racket.”

There. He’d told her the truth. He’d most likely scared the shit out of her as well, but at least she could direct her fear where he needed to, instead of being afraid that he or Gunter would lose their minds before they could mate her. That it was a real possibility was something she never needed to know. He could only hope they could convince her to stay with them before it came to that.

“Get dressed. I’ll send Gunter in here to make sure you and your daughter remain safe. We’ll leave for breakfast as soon as everyone’s ready to go.”

Gunter was on the bed, his feet crossed, with one arm under his head, the other draped across his chest, sleeping when Clay entered the room.

He thought about slamming the door to wake him up, but didn’t want to startle the two females. Waking his triad mate was a dangerous proposition. With the present danger, Clay knew that though his friend was sleeping, he had put his animal on alert. If he wasn’t careful, Gunter could awaken in mid shift just as he dealt a killing blow.

Reaching out, he wiggled the other man’s toe. “Wake up, you lazy bastard. I need to shower and get dressed, our mate is alone in her room.”

Gunter sat up with a growl, his cat eyes glowing in the dim light afforded by the closed drapes. His hair thickened as his mane grew in the few seconds it took him to recognize Clay.

“One of these days you’re going to wake me like that and I’m going to take your head off.” Gunter sat up with a scowl.

“Why do you think I stand at the foot of the bed and wiggle your toes? I’m not crazy and I don’t have a death wish.” Clay grinned. “You might want to get in there. She’s dressing for breakfast and we need to take them to Mason to get some clothes. They’re women. They won’t borrow underwear, though I can’t say I blame them.”

“Try not to take too long. I need to get out of here for a bit before I go nuts. Her scent is enough to drive me insane. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to stay here without…” He let the words trail off, no doubt knowing that Clay knew what he meant.

“I know what you mean. It’s beginning to get to me as well.”

Gunter gave him a sharp look. “The heat has set upon you, too?”

“Yes.” No one was really sure how long it would take for the
el calor
to affect the formerly-human males. Clay wasn’t the first of them to find his mate, but as with all things, it could influence them all in differing ways. “I don’t remember Fish saying anything about feeling the heat while he courted his mate, but then he’d already been in love with her and had consummated their relationship before he became a full shifter.”