Nyght's Eve (3 page)

She was one beautiful fucking woman.

Evelyn Beaumont stood on the porch looking
down at the man standing at the bottom of the front stairs, waiting for him to
say something. He looked like the sort of dangerous guy she would have loved to
have let her cousin check into the bordering house, but Hunter was currently at
Ink This, the local tattoo parlor where he worked part-time. No matter how
scruffy he looked, this man was one of her cousin’s best friends, and she would
welcome him to the haven she had created.

God knew he looked like he needed it.

Evie could see the fatigue heavily lining his
face, and everything in her responded to the pain she noticed in his piercing
dark-gray eyes. Something about him made her want to go to him, to reach out
and soothe him. She wanted to tell him that he could heal here, and help him
find some peace. But as a woman who ran a rescue center working with feral
dogs, she knew enough to keep her distance.

This man wasn’t tamed.

She eyed him warily from the top of the
stairs when he remained silent. “Are you okay?”

Dare shook his head as if trying to rattle
some sense into his damn head and braced his hand on the railing on the side of
the front steps. For a second he had thought he’d imagined the woman before
him, but quickly realized that she wasn’t just some dream come to life. She was
real…and standing there looking at him like he was fucking crazy.

Maybe he was.

Damn, he really needed to get some sleep.

“Sorry, what? I am. Dr. Nyght, that is. I
mean, Daryk Nyght.” Someone needed to shoot him to get him to stop talking,
because clearly he couldn’t be trusted forming sentences at the moment. She
smiled at him, and Dare was damn glad he was leaning on the railing.

“It’s nice to meet you, Dr. Nyght. I’m Hammer’s
cousin, Evelyn Beaumont, but please call me Evie.”

“Dare.”

Her smile faltered. “Excuse me?”

“My name. Just call me Dare.”

“Okay, Dare. Welcome to the Beaumont Boarding
House. Come on in.” She gestured to the open front door and Dare took a
strengthening breath before he climbed the stairs and came to a stop next to her.
Christ, she smelled like peaches. Ripe, juicy peaches. When he’d been overseas
he used to dream of peaches plucked fresh from a tree, still warm from the
sun’s rays.

It was a particular weakness of his.

Despite his current difficulties functioning,
he still had enough wits about him to motion her inside before following her
into the house. Manners had been far too engrained in him from a young age for
him to act any differently. He breathed her scent in as he closed the door and followed
her through the foyer, down a hall into the large kitchen. He tried to keep his
distance so he wouldn’t make her nervous being in the house with a strange man
she didn’t know.

A frown settled over his face. She didn’t
know him. What the hell was she doing walking inside with him where they were
alone? He could be—

Dare’s thoughts came to a screeching halt
when he realized that she had been speaking to him again, and was now looking
at him with that wary expression again as she moved to stand on the other side
of the marble island in the center of the kitchen. Christ, he really was a
mess. “I’m sorry…what were you saying?”

“The setup is pretty simple here. Each
bedroom has its own bathroom, but the rest of the house is shared space. There
is an entertainment area on the main floor with a pool table and a large TV,
and there’s a gym in the basement. We usually offer baked goods in the kitchen,
but meals are basically up to you. Everyone is pretty respectful of other
people’s stuff, but if you have food you don’t want to share, be sure to mark
it.”

Evie gestured toward a hallway off the
kitchen. “My cousin Hunter lives in the apartment down that hall, but if he
isn’t around you can just ask one of us. All of our phone numbers are listed here
by the phone. My uncle Tony and his wife Maddy usually stop by every Monday and
Friday to check on things, but they’re on vacation right now. You know Hammer’s
mother, Madeline, right? Anyways, they’ll be back in a few weeks, but my
cousins and I live right down the road, just passed the rescue center if you
need anything.”

Dare scowled before he could stop himself.
“Rescue center? As in barking dogs?”

He knew he’d made a grave error as soon as
those beautiful blue eyes iced over. He belatedly remembered seeing the big
barn down the road, and also recalled what he had heard about her the last time
he’d come to Breakers. Evie had been out of town, but he’d met her cousins,
Beckett, Francesca and Hunter—who were also Hammer’s step-siblings—and they had
spoken of the rescue center where they all worked part-time. The rescue center
was Evie’s pride and joy…and he had just insulted it.

Damn it, why couldn’t he fucking think before
he spoke?

Evie regarded him coolly. “The Beaumont Rescue
Center is far enough that you shouldn’t be disturbed by the noise.”

“I’m sure it is. I like dogs. Really, I like
all animals.” Rubbing a hand over his face, he sighed. “Sorry, I haven’t slept
in…hell, I don’t know. I’m not usually this…”

Fucked
up.

Evie’s face softened and her eyes warmed with
sympathy again. She picked up a set of keys from the counter and handed them to
him. “I’ll let you get settled in. You’re in room ten. It’s a corner room on
the second floor.” She hesitated for a moment before saying, “There’s a family style
meal in a few days over at my house. It’s nothing big…just a barbeque, but we
try to do something on Sundays with the family and the workers from the center.
Feel free to stop by if you’re feeling up to it.”

She opened the door before he could say
anything, and with a cheerful wave, she walked out onto the back patio, shutting
the door in his face. Without thinking, he found himself moving to a nearby window,
watching as she got into a golf cart. He stood there as she headed across the
manicure lawn towards the stone and glass manor down the road.

The princess in the glass tower, he thought
as he watched her leave, then shook his head at the fanciful thought. Sweet
Jesus, he really needed sleep. With that in mind, he turned from the window and
left the kitchen, making his way back to the front of the house. He climbed the
grand staircase, absently admiring open space of the large foyer until he
reached the second floor.

He turned down the hall, then had to
backtrack and go the other way until he reached his room. Using the key, he let
himself in, then simply dropped his bags on the floor after he shut the door
and locked it. Not even taking the time to look around the well-appointed room,
he sat down on the bed and leaned over to remove his boots, almost falling over
in the process.

Damn, was he in sorry shape.

Exploring would have to wait. Dare let out a
long sigh as he lay back on the bed, and was asleep before his head hit the
pillow.

Chapter Two

Dare woke up on Monday morning feeling more
rested than he had in months. He’d slept the entire weekend away, only waking
long enough to piss and stumble downstairs to the kitchen to forage for
something to eat.

On Saturday, he woke briefly after the sun
had already gone down. To his relief and gratitude, some benevolent soul had
left large muffins under a glass dome on the kitchen counter and a few containers
of soup in the refrigerator as welcome gifts. By the short note left on the
counter he’d highly doubted the food had been left by Hunter, so Dare assumed
that the princess of the manor had been the one to take pity on him and leave
him the provisions.
 

Bless her soul.

To his extreme regret, a pie pan with barely
a few crumbs sitting on the bottom was left on the counter next to the muffins.
It was as if the empty pan had been left there to taunt him, and he couldn’t
resist sticking his finger into the meager amount of filling left on the side.
Damn, it had been apple pie and that small amount hinted at how damn delicious
it had been.

He loved pie.

Lamenting the missing treat, Dare ate the
homemade minestrone soup right out of the container as he stood at the counter,
barely taking time between bites to breathe. The kitchen was a wide-open space,
with a large center island set in the middle of the room. The wooden cabinets
were painted white, and were accented by silver hardware that matched the black
marble countertop that was shot through with veins of silver into the stone.
The granite flooring was a lighter gray that went well with the stainless steel
appliances. Overall, it was a welcoming room that Dare liked even better since
there was food there he hadn’t had to make for himself.

After practically inhaling two blueberry
muffins, Dare had finally realized he had been acting like a starving animal,
but couldn’t bring himself to care much. It would have been a different story
if someone had been there to witness his behavior, but since he was alone he
had just shrugged, grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, then trotted off
back to bed.

Sunday was pretty much a repeat with him
waking well past sunset, clearly having missed the barbeque at Evie’s place. He
roused himself enough to unpack a little, then jumped in the shower and took
the time to shave his beard off before heading downstairs to the kitchen.

He’d taken a little time to notice his
surroundings this time, since he had been too tired the previous day. The
plantation house was beautiful, and it made him chuckle when he saw the sturdy
furniture that he was sure had been chosen for the comfort of the large ex-military
men that stayed there.

He’d scowled when he saw another empty pie
pan on the kitchen counter. From the look of it, this time it had been
blueberry. Silently cursing the pie thief, he’d opened the refrigerator door to
see someone had restocked it with more soup. He took out a container at random,
and after opening the top, sighed in appreciation as he took a sample of the
chicken noodle soup. Again, he ate the entire container leaning back against
the counter. The quiet of the house soothed him, and after eating a muffin and
several cookies, he had gone back to his room and passed out again.

 
Now
that he was rested, he felt more like himself. Standing at the window of his
bedroom, he looked out over the expanse of the Beaumont property. His room
faced the large pond and he thought about taking a run to stretch out muscles
that were stiff from disuse. He changed into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt,
then left his room to head downstairs. The scent of coffee had him following
his nose to the kitchen where he found Hunter Savante sitting at the breakfast
nook, sipping from a large mug.

Hunter was Hammer’s stepbrother, although
they had been friends long before they had been family. Since Hunter’s father
Tony had married Hammer’s mother Madeline a few years ago, they had formed a
large, boisterous family. Dare had met Hunter a few times over the years, and
he liked the taciturn man a great deal. Hunter was an ex-Navy SEAL that had
been burned in an explosion during a mission overseas. He had thick burn scars
that covered most of the left side of his body, but Dare knew better than most
that the worst of Hunter’s scars were internal.

Just like his own were.

Hunter looked up as Dare walked in. “Nice to
see you’re alive. I thought I’d have to check on you today to see if you were
still breathing if you didn’t come down.”

Dare simply grunted as he poured himself his
own mug of coffee. Taking his mug with him, he moved to sit down across from
Hunter at the table, then drank down half his coffee while he simply eyed the
man sitting across the table.

Hunter’s eyebrow rose. “What?”

“It’s you, isn’t it? You’re the pie thief?”

A slow smile spread across Hunter’s face.
“You snooze, you lose, buddy. I didn’t know when you were going to get up…or if
you were still alive. I couldn’t just let it go to waste. And it was damn good
pie.”

Dare scowled at him. “You’re a heartless
bastard.”

“I am when it comes to pie,” Hunter said with
a laugh. “You feeling better now?”

“It’s a start.”

Hunter sobered. “You won’t be bothered here.
It’s a good place to take some time and get your head right. There are only two
guys here right now. One has a room, but he’s rarely here. The other one lost
part of his arm in an IED explosion and is doing rehab at Fight Hard. He’s from
a few towns over, but he’s having a hard time adjusting, so he decided to stay
here.”

Dare nodded. “It can be hard acclimating to
an injury like that. Sometimes it’s more difficult to be around family or the
people close to you while you do.”

“I agree.” Hunter paused before saying, “He’s
got a girl—his fiancée—that he’s been avoiding.”

A look of disgust marred Dare’s face. “She
not sticking now that he’s back?”

Hunter shook his head. “Naw, she’s solid. Been
by to check on him even though he won’t see her. She’ll wear him down
eventually and make him see that she isn’t going anywhere. I just wanted to
warn you, because when she does track him down, shit is gonna hit the fan.”