by Juniper Hart
Eve started to shake her head, but she instantly thought better of it, holding herself still. With each passing second, more color seemed to drain from her face until she was sure that they were staring at an opaque mask of veins.
This is a bad dream. In a minute, I’ll wake up in the glass room, safe and secure again.
“Have I made a mistake in choosing you, Eve?” Father asked, his voice low and sinister.
She remained stalk still, unsure of how to respond and waiting for a clue. She desperately wanted to look at Grace for an answer, but she had already learned her lesson.
“I asked you a question!”
Three slaps followed, causing her to fall to her knees. The others dropped their heads, presumably bowing in prayer for her sinful soul.
“Rise! You must repent!” Father growled. “Repent to me!”
Instantly, Eve ambled to her feet, and Father took her by the hand, leading her toward the pulpit. Furtively, she looked back at Grace, but it was clear that there was nothing the older woman could do. At the center of the apse, Father stopped her, and Eve’s eyes fell on a closed, brown box. What was in there?
Father reached to open it, and Eve’s terror mounted. She had a feeling that nothing good would be found inside.
“You must learn to obey before you can be wed,” Father crooned. “You must submit yourself to me.” He pulled the whip out from the depth of the wooden container, and Eve stared at it.
“No, Father!” she cried, instantly realizing what he intended to do. “Please do not whip me! I obey! I submit!”
Father turned to her, shaking his head as he patted her stinging red cheek with far too much force.
“No, child,” he assured her. “I will not whip you.”
Relief seemed to explode from Eve’s eyes, and she nodded gratefully, her body visibly sagging.
“Then it shall be if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten,” Father began. Any ease that had seeped into Eve’s slender form instantly dissolved.
Eve stared at him uncomprehendingly, trying to make sense of what Father wanted from her.
“Father?” she asked, her voice cracking.
He smiled at her patiently, though there was no warmth in his eyes whatsoever. “You must flog yourself for your sins, Eve. Only then can you understand the meaning of true contrition.”
Eve’s mouth parted. Before she could even form the words to protest, Father delivered her yet another blow, one which would undoubtedly leave a bruise around her wide, shocked eye. Even the congregants gasped when Eve fell this time.
How is this happening? Why am I being handled so cruelly? For years, she had been told of her specialness, of her delicate, precious nature. Yet there she was, bloodied and gasping on the floor at Father’s feet.
“You dare to defy me?” Father roared. “You are not ready! You are a sinner in paradise! Jezebel! Harlot! Temptress! Demon!”
From somewhere deep inside Eve, a spark of indignation rose, but it was quickly gone as she lifted her head to stare at Father’s enraged expression. He raised his arm to strike her again, but Eve’s voice rang out to stop him.
“NO, FATHER!” she screamed with more strength than she knew she had. “I’ll do it! I’ll do whatever you ask! Please forgive me!”
The maniacal fury seemed to slip slowly from Father’s face. He took in her face as if he was silently weighing his final decision.
“Rise,” he instructed her again. “Rise and do as you are told.” Clumsy and shaking, Eve lumbered to her feet, accepting the willow switch from his outstretched hands. “Strip off your clothes.”
Unwittingly, Eve looked to Grace again. This time, the blonde averted her eyes.
“Must I tell you again?” Father hissed. Quickly, Eve began to do as she was told, stripping off her long, homespun dress carefully and casting it aside. She retrieved the whip from where she had left it on the floor.
“All of your clothes,” Father insisted. “You must allow me to see you in all of your sinful glory if you wish for absolution.”
Eve inhaled with a deep shakiness, but she obliged, standing naked at the altar. Father nodded approvingly.
“We shall all join Eve in expelling her sin,” he told the group. He handed the whip to Eve, and she accepted it with trembling hands. “As we pray for your unworthy soul, you must give yourself forty lashes, no more no less.”
He left her alone on the pulpit and nodded shortly. “You may begin.”
A dull humming filled her ears again, and Eve swallowed the lump in her throat, closing her eyes and bracing herself. The first slap slashed across her tender skin, and she cried out in pain.
“Again!” Father ordered, and Eve smothered her upset to obey.
From the recesses of her mind, something was trying to emerge, something deep and dark, something that warned her that none of this was right and that she was in the wrong place.
“Thirty more lashes!” Father howled, but Eve was somewhere else, somewhere in a shoddy house with three small redheaded girls and two boys. “You will not be saved if you stop now, Eve!” Father screamed. “Keep going!”
She tried desperately to cling to the image in her fragile mind’s eye, reaching out with tendril fingers, but the blood trickling down her back was far too distracting. Who are they? Is that a memory, or have I descended into the abyss of madness?
“Forty! You must stop now, Eve!” Father’s voice brought her back to the present and forced her eyes open, tears spilling down her cheeks in a salty sea.
The whip fell from her hands, and she looked about at the congregation, who stared at her with admiration, like she had done something worthy of praise.
“Hallelujah!” Father cried. “Let us rejoice in Eve’s return to the fold!”
“Praise Father!”
The words echoed through her head, but Eve could barely hear them. No one else in the room seemed to notice how the candlelight flickered, as though a strong breeze had passed through the chapel. There was nowhere such a wind could have come from.
“How do you feel?” Father wanted to know, joining her on the pulpit once more.
“Absolved?” Eve mumbled through her agony. The cuts were searing on her back, but even as she thought about the pain, she could feel it lessening somehow.
“Remember, Eve,” Father told her softly, leaning in as if to tell her a secret. “Resistance is the work of the devil, and there is no place for the devil inside the walls of this Eden.”
And suddenly, Eve’s head was filled with screams, the same ones she heard in her head every night.
Oh, my God, she thought, her breath catching. The screams are mine!
4
They arrived in Seattle at eleven o’clock Tuesday night. Despite the comfort of his private plane, Orion had found the six-hour flight from Corpus Christi had taken its toll on him.
I’m already tired of this trip, he thought with some amusement, but he knew he had a lot more juice left in him.
“You good?” Vera asked, and he nodded.
“Aren’t I always?” he chuckled. “What time are we to meet with the listing agent in Ocean Shores?” They loaded themselves into a waiting town car and settled in before his assistant answered.
“Ten a.m. It’s a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Seattle to the resort, so we’ll have to leave at seven to beat traffic.”
Orion nodded. “We have three days in Washington, correct?”
Vera nodded. “Yes…”
Orion arched an eyebrow, catching the way she trailed off.
“What?” he asked. “Is there a problem?”
Vera shook her head quickly. “No. It’s just…”
Orion waited expectantly, his blue eyes questioning, but Vera seemed unable to voice what she had to say.
“Vera, I’m really too tired to do a mind probe on you,” he informed her, sighing. “What’s the issue?”
“It’s probably nothing,” she said quickly,
sensing his exasperation. “But when I spoke to the listing agent, he told me that we wouldn’t meet with the seller.”
Orion shrugged his shoulders, unperturbed by the revelation. It wasn’t unusual, after all.
“They’re probably overseas. It’s fairly common in deals of this magnitude,” he replied.
“No,” she contradicted flatly. “He’s not overseas. He’s here in Washington. He simply doesn’t want to meet with us.”
Orion didn’t bother to ask how she knew that about the seller, but the matter was still not cause for alarm. “To each his own. Maybe he’s a recluse. Maybe he hates people. It’s really not relevant. As long as we have his signature and a witness if the deal should go through, it doesn’t matter. We’re not looking to make friends, Vera.”
She didn’t answer, and Orion could read the pensive expression on her face as she stared out the window.
She’s smart, but she doesn’t understand the ins and outs of the business yet. Things that may seem odd to a layman are known as “quirks” to the wealthy, he thought jokingly.
They arrived at The Breeze and were immediately shown to their suites. Instantly, Orion was at ease, noting the difference in service from the Cactus. The Seattle resort was one of Orion’s favorite hotels to visit. Rarely did he have problems with the staff or structure, and his secret shoppers always had stellar feedback about it.
Which is why Vera scheduled us to be here for three days, he realized. The more time he spent with his assistant, the more he admired the way her mind worked. I really hope this deal is everything she thinks it is. She deserves something good.
“I’ll meet you for breakfast at six?” Orion asked as they went to part ways on the sixteenth floor.
Vera nodded again, turning to enter her suite. “Good night, Orion.”
Orion paused, suddenly troubled by her tone. She was not stupid. He shouldn’t dismiss her wariness. She had Lycan instincts, and she hadn’t been wrong about much.
“Vera?”
She glanced over her shoulder, her eyes curious. “Yes?”
“Why are you so troubled about the absentee seller? Surely you must know that is commonplace in the real estate business. You do have a degree from Cornell, after all.”
The comment was meant to be cheeky, but Vera did not seem amused. Her eyes were clouded as she considered his question. She gnawed on her lower lip and shook her short dark hair, a puzzled look on her face.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “On paper, there is nothing wrong with it, but… call it a gut feeling? Anyway, what do I know about these things? Hopefully I will gain better intuition on the ones upcoming.” She grinned slyly, and Orion had to laugh.
Look at her getting ahead of herself already. Good for her. Ambition is hard to find. I’ve got to remember to introduce her to Dad one of these days.
“Fair enough,” he chuckled. “Goodnight, Vera.”
“Goodnight.”
They retired to their respective rooms, and Orion dropped his attaché case on the table, undoing his tie, walking toward the minibar. He had not admitted it to Vera, but he was incredibly excited for the following day.
As promised, Vera had shown him the specs of the property in Ocean Shores, and he had been disbelieving at first. His eyes had almost popped in shock when he read the financial reports.
“Seriously? It generates this kind of income annually? How is that?”
“There are guests who live on the resort full time, as I mentioned. It does not seem to have much of a rating on any of the travel sites, and I cannot find a single advertisement for the place, yet they do exceedingly well, even without being at capacity. I guess word of mouth goes a long way.”
“Why is he selling?” Orion asked, feeling the hairs on the base of his neck rise.
“I’m not entirely sure. The resort has been in the family for generations, but they are mortals, from what I’ve found. I am guessing personal issues. Maybe a divorce?”
“I wouldn’t know anything about that,” Orion commented. “And I don’t ever want to.” He did not acknowledge the pang the words brought to his gut.
Are we starting with this again? Damn you, Lane, for putting the idea of a mate into my head. Now I’m never going to get it out. The question was, did he want to get it out?
He turned his full attention back to Vera.
“Whatever the reason, it’s a very good deal, and I imagine there are others who are interested in putting in offers,” his assistant continued.
“Then we have to act quickly. The good news is, if we want, we have a surplus of funds to start a bidding war.” He winked at her, and Vera had stared at him.
“Are you sure you don’t want to talk to other members of the board before you dive into this?” she asked in a tone that suggested she wished she didn’t have the morality that made her voice her concerns allowed.
Orion laughed and shook his head. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, since you seem so eager to have a place on the board, but ultimately, the decision is mine. When Sirius was still a shareholder in the company, he and I would have to work out any disputes between us, but without my brother, I’m on my own and free to quash and enact anything I please.”
Vera’s ebony eyebrows furrowed. “Then what’s the point of having a board?”
“That’s a fair question. The board is crucial in any company because it keeps the CEO honest and rational. It keeps the shareholders thinking that someone is accountable from the mad reign of a tyrant dictator. No matter how it’s structured, six heads are always better than one. So even though the choice is mine at the end of the day, I still want to hear out what they have to say, even if I don’t agree. It’s a democracy… kind of.”
His assistant nodded understandingly. “Don’t you want to hear their thoughts on this?”
“I will,” he assured her. “Later.”
She cocked her head to the side and frowned. “What if they’re against it?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, but I can tell you this; in the fifty years I’ve been CEO, I’ve never had a major dispute with any of the board members.”
“Only minor squabbles?”
“Well, you know businessmen, Ver. They’re greedy and want to line their pockets with as much money as possible. Our problems arise from the amount of money I put back into the company. But I have never been in dispute about the purchase of a property.”
Orion poured himself a drink from the minibar and wandered toward the balcony to stare at the view beyond. He opened the door and stepped onto the patio, inhaling the salty Seattle air. A soft drizzle had started to fall over the city, and Orion found himself embracing the drops as they teased his face.
He wondered if he should bring his headquarters to Seattle. He had always had an affection for the rainy city. There was something comforting about the rain, and it certainly helped his aversion to sunlight. Where others found the dampness depressing, Orion found it comforting. He couldn’t even imagine what the board would say about that. He chuckled to himself as he turned away, sipping his drink.
He sat down at the table and pulled his laptop from the case. He had a yen to look at the photos of Eden again, but that wasn’t surprising. It was a beautiful property, sprawling on a beachfront but neglected and in dire need of cosmetic work.
That stuff is easy to deal with, he thought critically, examining the pictures. It’s structural work that will be the killer.
His eyes continued to rake through the details, admiring the old-fashioned wainscoting and original woodwork. It had been built in 1890 and had always been a hotel, according to the reports which Vera had found. The fire in Orion’s belly was overwhelming to get to the property and see it. Vera had a wonderful eye. If this panned out, she was getting a huge bonus, no matter what she said. She was a natural. Orion was glad she was on his team.
He took another sip of his drink and smiled to himself. If this pans out. Who am I kidding? I fell in love with Ed
en the minute I laid eyes on it, but I have to hold my cards close to the vest because there could be another shoe. There’s always another damned shoe, isn’t there?
He sat back, closing his eyes to inhale again. Suddenly, his second wind came flooding through, and he was wide awake. He might be a hopeless romantic, but he really hoped there was no other shoe.
“This is a beautiful little town,” Orion commented as the limousine drove slowly down Ocean Shores Boulevard. The houses were elegant and well-kept, patriotically sporting American flags on the whitewashed wraparound porches.
The smell of the Pacific Ocean filled his nostrils, and Orion felt a familiar sense of melancholy and nostalgia, as if he had been there before and yearned to return.
“It has a very colorful history dating back to the 1860s. I will email you the archives,” Vera told him, her own eyes trained on the lovely view outside the window.
“Not really necessary,” Orion quipped. “I remember the era quite well. Better times, if you ask me.”
“A little before my time,” Vera confessed with a laugh. “Thank the gods for the internet.”
“I did some research of my own,” Orion said, and he saw a small smile form on Vera’s lips.
“I am glad it has captured your interest,” she said.
He did not reply, though he was thinking about how he had stayed up all night, envisioning design plans for the building rooms.
There is enough land to house two outdoor swimming pools and an indoor. A tennis court, tiki bar, and seasonal outdoor restaurant can be accommodated. Inside, we can set up a movie theater, bowling alley, and board rooms. The location is perfect for weddings, so a landscaping budget will need to be structured to bring in a rose garden and gazebo.
There were so many details to be planned, so many avenues which he knew he had not even considered. The anticipation of arrival was almost too much for him to bear.
“Are you all right, sir? You seem tense.”
Orion glanced at his assistant and nodded quickly.
“Of course,” he replied. “I am just thinking.”