by Eve Vaughn
With her academic future at stake, Zora had found the courage to break it off. As she tried to move on with her life and distance herself from him, he got really scary. Despite the restraining order, he stalked her mercilessly until a brutal event put him away for several years. The incident had left her shattered. Zora now wondered if she’d have been better off taking her chances with Dale finding her rather than dealing with the nightmare she’d landed herself in.
Logan took his time getting off the floor. His senses were still reeling from having her in his arms, feeling her heat, inhaling her scent and tasting her. He needed more. Had to have more. He was sorely tempted to follow her up the stairs and finish what they’d started. The past several days of having her near without being able to touch or hold her had been driving him crazy.
Who would have thought after all these years he and his cousins would find their onida at their vacation retreat? Every year he, Heath and Gavin came to what they called their little corner of the world for a month to get away from the hustle and bustle of their stressful lives. This year, however, was different because it was to be their last year coming together.
It wasn’t because they no longer needed the solitude and freedom this month-long sojourn afforded them. It was because the three of them had decided they would give up the search for a woman they could mate with in order to continue their line. Each one of them was approaching forty and they all wanted the companionship only a female could provide. They also knew that if they were to settle for a ‘regular’ woman, sharing her would be out of the question.
She wouldn’t be able to bear their seed, making it unnecessary to maintain the triad.
They’d decided after this particular trip they would each seek out a woman they found tolerable enough to settle down with. Because this land they’d built their cabin retreat on had belonged to their ancestors and held special meaning for them, bringing just anyone who’d never fully understand their nature wouldn’t seem right. It had been their plan to hold on to the land until they figured out what they wanted to do with it.
Logan had not been as eager as his cousins to capitulate so easily, wanting to wait just a little longer until they found the one who was meant to be theirs, but there was only one of him and two of them. So begrudgingly he’d agreed. Though he wanted to make the best of his vacation, his heart was heavy until nearly a week ago when Gavin came tearing into the cabin, carrying Zora’s broken body in his arms. It was like the gods had heard his silent prayer for intervention and granted their blessing.
For days, he’d sat by helplessly watching as his cousin did his best to heal the woman he’d known instantly was their mate. As she healed, her beauty became more apparent. Her body was a work of art, and he wanted nothing more than to sample each inch of her delectable, chocolate-colored skin.
His animal half was raging to break free, to claim what was theirs, but he had to practice patience, a trait he wasn’t known for. So when he’d decided to come back to the cabin ahead of his cousins from their morning run and found her standing in the middle of their living room looking good enough to fuck, there was absolutely no way he could pass up the opportunity to do what he’d been waiting for since Gavin had rescued her. And he was damn sure not going to apologize for it.
“What the hell was that all about?” Gavin raged, yanking his jeans off the ground and sticking his legs angrily inside.
Logan stalked over to the middle of the living room and grabbed his jeans. He put them on in no particular hurry and shrugged in response to his cousin’s angry query.
Gavin, however, would not be ignored. Usually the most even-tempered of the three, it took a lot to raise his cousin’s temper to the boiling point. From the look on the other man’s face, he’d reached it. His cousin was in his face almost nose to nose. If Logan didn’t know better, it looked as if Gavin was ready to take a swing at him.
Logan narrowed his eyes and glared at his cousin, who matched his six foot seven stature. “Hey, I didn’t do anything the two of you wouldn’t have done. She’s ours, right? And if you didn’t notice, she wanted it just as much as I did.”
“That’s beside the point! We agreed to go slow with her.”
Gavin pushed his index finger against Logan’s chest, emphasizing each word.
“No, you said we should. And I bet Heath agrees with me.”
He turned to his other cousin who was currently shrugging on his plaid shirt.
Heath raised his head from his task as if he were unaware of the commotion. “You two already know where I stand. I’m with you, Logan. I believe we should start how we intend to continue. She has to get used to us sometime.”
Logan’s lips tilted to a self-satisfied smirk. “See Gav, I told y—”
“But Gavin has a point,” Heath interrupted. “I’ve been thinking about it for a couple days and as much as I would like to have done exactly what you did, we should at least give her a little bit of time.” He held up his hand when Logan opened his mouth to protest. “By a little bit of time, I mean at least a few days. I don’t intend to spend the rest of our vacation walking on eggshells around her. But I figure she probably doesn’t know about her heritage and that could take some getting used to. I say we give her a few days, let her get to know us better and then we make our move.”
Logan didn’t want to hear it. How was he going to keep his hands off of her when he’d already had a taste? His cousins didn’t know what they were missing, but he did. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Are you two blind or did you not see her respond to me? She’s ours. Why shouldn’t we have her?”
“Because there’s a little thing called consideration.” Gavin shoveled his fingers through his dark hair in obvious frustration. “She’s our woman—our mate, and we have the rest of our lives to be with her. What’s a few days? Although I think we should at least give her a week, maybe two.”
Logan shook his head. “Oh, hell no.”
“I second that hell no,” Heath agreed. “A few days is all I’m willing to concede. And by a few, I mean no more than three.”
Gavin took a deep breath and placed his hand on Logan’s forearm. “Look cuz, there’s so much more involved here. We at least have to contact any relatives she has who may be worried about her. Let them know she’s okay. And we have to find out what she was running from. You and I both heard her delirious ramblings. Yesterday, when I made that impromptu trip into town, I got in contact with a private detective to find out everything he could about Zora. When I go back for supplies at the end of the week, we’ll better know how to handle the situation. That will be exactly three days. Can you at least wait until then?”
“This hasn’t been any easier on me, cousin, so if I can manage, I don’t see why you can’t,” Heath reasoned with Logan.
Logan’s nostrils flared in annoyance. He knew when he was at the end of a losing battle, but dammit, his whole body ached. Just thinking about her made his cock stiffen to the point of near pain. As much as he hated to admit it, his cousins were probably right.
“Fine,” he bit out through clenched teeth. “Three days tops and then all bets are off.” Without waiting for a response, he kicked his pants out of the way and headed for the front door.
“Where are you going?” Gavin called to him.
Logan wrenched the door open. “For a run.”
Gavin raised a brow. “We just got back from one.”
Logan didn’t bother to answer because he knew if he didn’t get out of the house now, there was no holding him back from going up those stairs and claiming his woman.
Chapter Three
Zora’s body trembled with shame as she played the scene between her and Logan in her head over and over again. How could she fall in a virtual stranger’s arms so easily and like it?
What she found even more disconcerting was the way she responded to his touch and kisses. She didn’t have a long list of former lovers but the few she had never made her body lust to the point where she
thought she’d go crazy with need.
Why didn’t he seem bothered when the other two mysterious men had entered the house? What had she landed herself into and how the hell was she going to get out of it?
Zora tried to piece together what might have happened after her accident. It was apparent one of those men had brought her to this house. But had they brought the items she’d packed in Christine? She immediately thought of the cell phone that was at the bottom of her purse. At the very least, she could get in contact with her cousin in case she was worried about Zora not arriving when she said she would.
She figured the simple task of searching for her belongings would at least give her a temporary reprieve from thinking about the men downstairs, particularly Logan.
Thankfully, none of them had come upstairs yet which provided some relief. She rose to her feet and started to look around the room. Besides the rumpled sheets on top of the bed she’d slept on, the room was neat. There was no sign of her belongings anywhere, not even the clothing she’d been wearing.
Her gaze fell upon a set of double doors in the far corner of the room, which she assumed was the closet. She sighed with relief to see her luggage and other things she’d packed for her trip inside. Zora’s purse rested on top. To her dismay, when she dug through her bag and found her cell phone, she was unable to turn the phone on. Crap. The battery was dead and the charger was still connected to the cigarette lighter in her car. She wasn’t sure if they’d taken it out and brought it inside, but Zora didn’t have time to search when she heard a knock on the door. Straightening up, she wondered if she should answer the door or not say anything at all. If she was silent, maybe they would go away. She remained still, but there was another knock on the door.
“Zora, please open up.”
She didn’t recognize the voice but she was sure it didn’t belong to Logan. “Go away!” she shouted in hopes her visitor would leave her alone.
“I won’t go away until we’ve talked, so you might as well open the door.”
Zora wondered how long she had to get some clothes out of her suitcase and put them on. If she wasn’t too high off the ground, perhaps she could make an escape from the window.
Then common sense prevailed. Even if she could get outside before her visitor could enter the room, where would she go?
Christine was probably totaled and she had no clue where she was.
Another knock on the door echoed throughout the room.
“Zora, if you don’t open up I’ll kick the door open, and I’d rather not do that.”
If she did as he directed, would he do what the blond had done downstairs? The thought sent a shiver down her spine in fear and anticipation. She moistened her now dry lips with the tip of her tongue and called out, “If I let you in, do you promise you won’t touch me?”
Her query was briefly met with silence before she received an answer. “You have my word.”
She wasn’t sure she trusted that pause, but what choice did she have? If these men had really meant her harm, would they have brought her here and taken care of her? Zora strode toward the door on wobbly legs. Her hand trembled as she fumbled with the lock and opened the door. Standing on the other side was the dark haired man she’d seen earlier.
Her eyes widened in astonishment as she got a good look at him for the first time. Like with Logan, she needed to tilt her head back in order to meet his gaze. She found herself mesmerized by a pair of deep-green eyes. It was apparent that he and Logan were related in some way. They had similar features, like their noses and their angular bone structure. But where Logan was fair, this man was dark. His midnight black hair was longer than fashionable, falling to his collar in dark waves. His lips were full and the hard, rugged planes of his face weren’t as harsh, giving him a more classically handsome look.
Though he was as tall and broad-shouldered as Logan, he had a more slender build. But it was no less imposing in his stance. Zora felt dwarfed by him. What puzzled her was how she instantly felt at ease in his presence when she had no reason to. Usually she was wary of men until she got to know them better, yet with this stranger she felt none of her usual tension. Instead, her body tingled beneath the heat of his jade stare. First Logan and now this guy? What the hell was wrong with her? When he seemed like he was going to move forward, she took a few steps back allowing him in the room.
Zora suddenly felt self-conscious of her outfit and she wished she wore more than just a pajama top. “What do you want?”
He gave her a thorough perusal from head to toe, his eyes darkening and making her even more self-conscious than she already was. Zora took another nervous step backward. His lips slanted into an easy smile. “There’s no need to be frightened. I won’t hurt you.”
Zora opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out at first. She swallowed and tried again. “And I’m supposed to know that how? I don’t know any of you men from Adam, except that you and your friends like to walk around in the buff.”
His lips turned down into a sympathetic grimace. “I regret that was our first meeting, but I hope you don’t hold that against us. Name’s Gavin Lamere.” He held out his hand to her.
Zora looked at the large, muscular hand he stretched out to her, but she didn’t take it, not trusting herself to touch him.
He didn’t seem put out by her hesitation, instead he walked farther into the room. “How are you feeling?”
His question took her off guard. What was he playing at?
“What do you mean?” she asked, taking yet another step away from him.
“Relax, I won’t bite, Zora.”
“Stop calling me that!”
He raised a dark brow. “Your name is Zora, isn’t it?
According to the identification we found on you, that’s what it is.”
“It’s my name, but you’re speaking to me as if we’ve known each other for years. We’re strangers, and I’d like it if you stopped pretending we’re old friends. I need to know where the hell I am so I can leave.”
“That’s not possible right now. First off, you have no means of transportation at the moment and you were badly injured. Though you may be feeling better, you’ll need to take it easy for the next couple days.”
He didn’t say anything she hadn’t already expected with her vehicle, but she certainly didn’t feel like she’d been hurt unless his definition of ‘serious injury’ was different from hers. “I feel just fine. If you’d allow me the use of a phone, I’ll call someone and arrange to be out of your hair as soon as possible.”
“If we had a phone here, I’d be happy to let you call whomever you’d like. However, we don’t. And cell phone reception in this area is nonexistent.”
“No phone? How do you communicate with the outside world?”
“We don’t. That would ruin the point of vacationing. But if we really need to get in contact with someone, we go into town about a half hour away.”
“Well, could you take me into town? And where exactly is here?”
“Back Swamp, Tennessee. Not too far from the mountains.
You’re not in any shape to go anywhere until you’re completely healed. You should probably hop back into bed and rest before you wear yourself out.”
“I don’t need to lie down. What I need is to get out of here.
I have someplace to be.”
Though the slight smile that still curved his lips remained, an unfathomable expression flickered in his eyes. “The only place you need to be is back in bed, so we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Your decision.”
Zora placed her hands on her hips and pursed her lips.
“Look, I appreciate you taking me in, but I’d very much like to get dressed and get out of here. I’ve already told you, I’m fine.”
“The hard way it is.” He spoke as if she hadn’t said anything. Before she realized what he was up to, Gavin advanced and scooped her up in his arms. He carried her the short distance to the bed and gently laid her down on its cen
ter.
Once Zora got over the initial shock of her wishes being ignored, she tried to scramble off the bed, her blood boiling with fury. “I said I didn’t want to lie down!”
He placed a hand on her thigh to keep her still. “I’d hate to restrain you, but I will if I have to.”
She tried to squirm from the grip he had on her but to no avail. “Isn’t that what you’re doing to me already? Look, just because you allowed me to stay here for the night doesn’t give you the right to dictate to me.”
He chuckled in seeming amusement, which further served to piss her off. Her fists balled at her sides. If she were a violent person, she would have smacked the smug look off his face. “What’s so damn funny?”
“A night? Try five.”
“Look buddy, I don’t know what the—”she broke off when his words finally sunk in. “Five? That’s not possible.”
“Believe it. You’ve been here for a total of five nights, not one.”
She placed her hand over her forehead to feel for knots or any other trauma. Everything felt normal. “I couldn’t have been here for that long. I would have woken up at some point.
And if I was out so long, why didn’t you take me to a hospital? Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do after an accident?”
“Look, Zora… May I call you Zora?”
She nodded absently, the wind having been knocked out of her sails.
He sat down next to her, relaxing the grip he had on her thigh, but not removing it completely. “Zora, in most circumstances we would have taken you to the hospital like you said. But when I saw you—when we saw you, we couldn’t do it. Let me preface what I have to say next by mentioning, I’m a medical doctor and I’ve handled the majority of your care while you were unconscious. If at any point in time I thought your injuries were beyond anything I was capable of healing, you’d be at the hospital as we speak.
Fortunately, you responded well to the medicine I administered as well as to the treatment I provided.”
Zora raised a brow, waiting for him to finish because there was obviously a but in there. “And the reason you decided to keep me here was why?”