Contents
Title Page
Copyright
About Forever Love
Dedication
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Excerpt from Together Forever
About Kimberly
Forever Love
Circle of Ghadan
Kimberly Cummons
Copyright © 2016 by Kimberly Barnella
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and coincidental.
Cover Photography from hotdamnstock.com
As far as Cassandra Marston is concerned, immortality exists only in the fictional world of movies and books. Even if she did believe in living forever, becoming immortal isn’t on her bucket list. She wants to meet the right man, fall in love, have children and grow into a comfortable old age with him.
Keegan Fitzgerald has lived for thousands of years and is happiest when sequestered on his mountain, coming down only for business and the occasional one-night-stand. He has spent thousands of years looking out for himself and only himself.
Since the beginning of time, the immortal Aeterni have been first-born sons. Until now...
On a stormy night, fate brings the immortal Keegan and the mortal Cassandra together when he kills her in an auto accident. With her inexplicable return to life, nothing will ever be the same. Keegan must learn to put the needs of a beautiful and desirable woman before his own. While Cassandra’s forced to abandon her dreams and learn to live forever. As necessity turns to passion, living forever becomes a dream come true.
Discovering her immortality isn’t natural but created by science with a madman bent on destroying the Aeterni way of life and keeping Cassandra for himself, Keegan and Cassandra must race against time to secure her future so they can have forever...or time will run out.
For Suzanna Medeiros. Without your friendship and encouragement, this book would have never made it this far.
And always for my husband and hero. Thank you for putting up with this entire process. I couldn’t have done it without you.
CHAPTER ONE
For the first time in days, Cassandra Marston wasn’t freezing. Cocooned in a warm blanket, she felt a soft mattress beneath her. Was she dreaming? Nope. There was no way she could be sleeping with the tiny men building a town in her head. They were definitely using sledgehammers. If that weren’t enough fun, her mouth felt like it’d been filled with cotton and any remaining moisture sucked out.
She stretched under the warmth of the blanket and shoved herself up, leaning against the headboard. She was in a real bed and her body only slightly ached. Amazing since she’d been in constant pain for days. This was almost heaven. Maybe her kidnapper had finally killed her.
Cass shook her head. Pain shooting sparks through her brain forced her to close her eyes before they could adjust to the dim light. She was absolutely, positively not dead. Okay, not heaven but it still wasn’t the hell she’d been in either.
Why had he moved her? Why couldn’t she remember being moved?
She shifted her legs. No soreness between them, so far as she could tell. Whatever his intent, it wasn’t sexual. She was convinced she’d know if it was, or at least she prayed she’d know.
Sighing, she eased her eyes open and looked around. The room was softly lit by a lamp on the nightstand next to her and a fireplace’s glowing fire on the other side of the room. She could see enough to know the room was large and decorated in rich creams and browns with paintings lining one wall. Cass couldn’t see them well, but some looked like artists she recognized, although the subjects were unfamiliar. Someone was good at copying the styles of the masters.
She lifted her hand to rub her eyes and realized she wasn’t wearing glasses. How was that possible? Normally she couldn’t see more than a foot in front of her nose without them, now she could see perfectly across the room. What was happening to her? Contacts? But why would her captor put contacts in her eyes? No, she couldn’t feel anything in her eyes, and she’d know if he’d done surgery on her, wouldn’t she? More questions to pile on top of a million others.
Cass ran her hands over the brown down-filled comforter, it was soft and lightweight. Where was she? Scrubbing her hand over her face it felt dirty and when she looked, she saw dried blood on her fingertips. She stared at them for a moment before pushing her hand through her hair, her fingers caught in the tangled, slightly damp mess. She yanked them back and found more blood than she’d gotten off her face. What had he done to her now? Why had she been bleeding? It seemed to have stopped and pressing carefully, she couldn’t find anything that hurt. Well, no wonder she had a headache.
What in the world’s going on here? I have to be having a nightmare.
Sure she was. She’d been telling herself that for days, and she’d never woken up. She knew no matter how much her mind fought against it, she’d been kidnapped leaving her bookstore and thrown into a van. Before she could think about struggling, she’d felt the sting of a needle and remembered nothing more.
The door across the room opened and two men entered. One flicked the switch and the bedroom flooded with light from an overhead fixture. Cass blinked as her eyes grew accustomed to the change.
Both men were tall and despite the size of the room, Cass felt as if the space had been filled by them. Disappointment and fear hit her at the same time. She’d never seen either of them before, so she hadn’t been rescued.
She squashed the feelings before either could take hold. She couldn’t afford to let fear control her and disappointment wouldn’t do her any good. So far she’d done her best to keep her captor from knowing how much he scared her, only letting it take hold when she was too tired to fight it anymore and he wasn’t around. She wasn’t tired now, and she refused to let them know they were succeeding in scaring her. She really wished she’d thought to appear asleep.
“You’re awake, then.” The taller and more dangerous looking of the two said. His sexy Irish lilt made her want to curl her toes.
Dangerous had wavy black hair that touched his shoulders and he was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen. His sharply squared jaw was covered with at least a day’s growth of dark beard that was seriously sexy. Her attention turned to his full sensuous mouth, bracketed by deep creases that would undoubtedly form into dimples if he ever smiled. She looked into dark chocolate, almost black, bedroom eyes that tilted down at the outer corners giving him a “come hither” look.
He stood six foot plus easy. His black, long sleeve Henley accentuated hi
s muscled chest and slim waist. His build reminded her of a ballet dancer. Powerful and graceful as a panther. There was an energy that resonated from him and touched her like a caress. Irrationally, she wanted to run her hands up his chest and through his dark hair.
He was wearing faded blue jeans old enough to have formed around every wonderful contour of his body affording her a delicious look at what he had to offer. Her breath caught for a moment as she stared. Forcing her eyes downward, she noticed he was barefoot. He had beautifully formed feet. Ridiculously, she wanted to smile. Who had beautiful feet?
What in the world? Shaking her head, Cass forced her eyes away from him. How could she be attracted to a man who’d captured her? A man who looked like he could break her in half without a second thought? If her heart raced just from looking at him, what would happen to her if she ever touched him? If he ever touched her?
Whoa! These men are holding you captive. What are you thinking, girl?
“You’re scaring her, my friend,” the other guy said. He, too, had an accent but she couldn’t place it, not really. Perhaps something more Mediterranean, and definitely more cultured. His darker skin confirmed he was from regions farther south than Ireland. He was smiling at her as though he could read her thoughts and recognized her interest in his friend as normal. Did every woman who looked at Dangerous want to go to bed with him? Of course they did. That just made her one of the herd. Stupid, stupid.
The second guy was shorter than Dangerous, but not by more than a couple of inches and his black hair was short and curly. His brown eyes were more like dark honey, an almost golden hue. He, too, was good looking, but couldn’t hold a candle to his friend. His build was more that of a body builder, muscular without being hulky, his expression more open and friendly. More trustworthy. He was wearing a tailored black pinstriped shirt and sharply creased black slacks. His black loafers looked as expensive and well taken care of as everything else.
“Your head’s up your arse, as usual, Greek. I didn’t say anything.” The look Dangerous directed at Curly scared the crap out of Cass. She breathed a sigh of relief when Dangerous turned toward her. His expression had softened to something akin to tenderness, as though she were a poor, hurt animal he’d found at the side of the road. She didn’t want to be a poor, hurt animal, she wanted to be someone he desired, someone he wanted to—
What the...Cass, stop that! What has gotten into you? It was the drugs, that was it, it had to be the drugs. They made her crazy in the head.
“You don’t have to, you just have to scowl at her like you do everyone,” Curly said.
Curly looked at her, his smile reassuring. “Don’t worry, my dear, we’re not going to hurt you. Do you remember how you got here?”
She frowned at him. What did he mean by that? “I was kidnapped.”
The two men exchanged looks before Dangerous asked, “By whom?”
O-kay now she was confused, what the heck was going on here? “I’ve no idea. It wasn’t you two?”
She’d never seen anyone look more affronted. She would’ve sworn she’d just thrown up all over their shoes. Or bare feet as the case may be.
All trace of humor and friendliness disappeared from Curly as he said, “If I didn’t know better, my friend, I’d think your reputation precedes you.”
“Go and shite, Derian, you’re not helping.”
Dangerous turned his dark eyes on her, and she wanted to crawl under the blanket and hide. Or better yet, run her fanny out of there. If only she knew where “there” was.
Dangerous’ look should’ve quenched any stupid desire she might have for him. Except she felt her fingertips tingling. She still wanted to touch him, still wanted to run her hands along his stubble-darkened jaw and back through his shoulder-length hair. Was it as silky as it looked? Okay not so quenched. Jeez, she was one sick puppy.
“You ran across the road in front of my car,” Dangerous said yanking her attention away from his hair.
Fear clenched her chest and she had to struggle to breathe. How did she get on a road? “At least you didn’t hit me.”
“I did.”
She really was in a nightmare, or the man was crazy, or drunk, or high or all three. She so had to get out of here, but she hadn’t been able to get out of anything for days. Why would she think she’d have any more luck now?
One thing she knew for sure, her only hope of surviving this new twist to her life was to remain calm, or as calm as she possibly could. Not feeling deathly sick any more should help her at least pretend she was in control. Or she hoped it did. Taking a deep breath through her nose, she fought to sound in control. Holding her hand up, she looked at the blood. “That’s where this came from? Where am I hurt, am I going to die?”
“You were hurt all over, darlin’, and you did die.”
Cass stared at him before she squeaked, “I died? Did you do CPR? Why aren’t I in a hospital?” So much for sounding in control.
“I didn’t do CPR because you were dead and CPR wouldn’t help. You’re not in a hospital because your body decided it didn’t want to be dead and healed itself. Do you have any idea how that happened, since it’s impossible for a woman to heal like that?”
Oh God, he was crazy and she was going to die. She had to get out now or he was going to kill her. Sexy or not, he was certifiably nuts. With more strength and speed than she would have thought possible considering she’d been locked up and drugged for days, she pushed the comforter back and jumped out of the bed. Her bare feet momentarily sank into the thick brown carpet before adrenaline kicked in and she started to move.
She got as far as the door the men had come through before a strong arm wrapped around her waist and she felt his long, hard body behind her. She didn’t have to see him to know she’d been caught by Dangerous. The fresh spicy scent of him filled her nose. She fought for no more than a minute before she gave up and dropped against his hard chest. She wasn’t stupid; she couldn’t fight the steel band of his arm around her waist. Besides, she realized he was becoming aroused, she could feel the hard length of him against her back. Oh, yeah, he was that big.
The warmth of his body against hers filled her senses. Heaven help her, she’d gone mad. She fought the desire to rub against him. She could feel the heat coming from him, hear the quickening of his breath and she was reacting to it. She wanted him more than she’d wanted a man in a long time, and she didn’t even know his name.
She was crazy. For all she knew she was in more danger than she’d been in to date, and she wanted to get it on with the guy behind her? Jesus-jenny, when had she completely lost her freaking mind? If she didn’t stop, things could very well head in a direction she wasn’t prepared for and most certainly didn’t want. The man was liquid fire and more dangerous than anything or anyone she’d ever encountered in her life. She might want to have sex with him, and yes she did, crazy as that sounded, but she’d be the one left in flames when all was said and done.
She forced herself to keep her hands to herself and steady her breathing. The past however many days had taken their toll on her, and she was acting irrationally. Wanting a total stranger was insane. He was so very obviously dangerous and so very wrong in so many, many ways.
“Bloody brilliant, darlin’. Now please, go back and sit on the bed.” His deep voice was strained, and even more accented than before as he let go of her. “I promise we won’t hurt you, but you must stay here until we have more answers.”
Cass didn’t understand, but she knew she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. For some reason she actually believed he wouldn’t hurt her. Maybe it was because he could have snapped her in two like a twig, but he’d been gentle. His touch more a hug than something that kept her from escaping. Yes, her knack for knowing when someone was lying convinced her she could believe him, but there was more to it than that, something deeper she couldn’t put a name to.
She went back to the higher than normal four poster bed and hopped up to sit on the edge, her feet danglin
g. She’d planned to keep her eyes planted firmly on the floor in front of her, but she couldn’t resist taking one side-long peek at him. And really wished she hadn’t. The sight of the bulge straining against the worn fabric on the front of his jeans actually made her dry mouth water. What was she? Crazy, demented or both? What kind of idiot found her captor mouth-watering sexy and desirable. Quickly, she looked back down, trying to regulate her breathing. She felt her cheeks grow warm.
“Perhaps we should start again,” Curly said. “My name is Gaderian Sotiris, but you may call me Derian. My obnoxious Irish friend here is Keegan Fitzgerald. This is his home.”
What kind of name was Gaderian? Had she heard Dangerous, or rather Keegan, call him “Greek” earlier? She looked at Derian instead of the floor and realized that despite the fact he was very handsome, he held no appeal for her. Oh good, she could look at him without making a total fool of herself. Not that she could think of anything to do or say besides look at him, so the fool part was still probably screaming out loud and clear.
When she did no more than stare at him, Derian prompted, “You’re supposed to tell us your name.”
She blinked. Did she want to tell them her name? Oh what difference did it make? It wasn’t like it was exactly a secret since she owned her own bookstore with her name on it. “Cassandra.”
Derian nodded and said, “So Cassandra, can you tell us how you ended up on my friend’s mountain, barefoot in the middle of a rainy night?”
Hadn’t they already covered that? While she was trying to remember what she’d already told them, Derian sat at the foot of the bed, leaving enough room between them she felt safe. His soft brown eyes were kind as he said, “Are you warm enough? Your clothes were quite wet when Keegan brought you in, I understand.”
That was a strange change of topic, was he trying to relax her? Now that some of the confusion and a little of her fear was wearing off, she noticed she was shivering despite the fire in the fireplace. Whether it was from reaction or cold, she didn’t know, but cold was cold, no matter what the cause. “I am a bit chilled,” she said putting her hands on her arms and sliding them up and down her filthy sweater.
Forever Love (Circle of Ghadan Book 1) Page 1