Page 17

I t was one thing for Reeni to face her father. It was another thing to see her sister and her mother, when they finally met up three days later. It involved tears, hugs, tons of emotions, and lawyers who were trying to prep her for her courtroom testimony.

She just frowned at them and stated with a finality that no one could argue with, “Look. I’ll tell the truth. There is no need to prep me on what to say.”

When she was called to speak with the judge, she walked up and told him exactly what had happened and what she’d been through for many years. The judge kept asking questions, and her father kept trying to interrupt, but, at the end of the day, he could say absolutely nothing to convince the judge. All the documentation against Reeni had been overturned.

She stood here, releasing a long sigh of relief, as her father was warned about the court cases piling up against him for all his shenanigans, including tax evasion, fraud, and some other things she didn’t know anything about. When she felt an arm around her shoulders giving her a hug, she turned to see her sister, tears in her eyes as she whispered, “Thank God, I didn’t think I would ever sleep again.”

Understanding exactly how her sister felt, Reeni murmured, “Now we can sleep. It’s been a hellish period of too many years, but it’s over.”

Her mother came over and asked, “Are you leaving now? Are you going away for a long time?”

She hesitated, and Trevor walked closer. “What do you want to do, Reeni? Do you want to spend a couple more days here or head straight to the castle?”

She groaned. “I really want to go to the castle, but…”

He interrupted, “Why don’t we compromise?” He looked over at the two women and smiled. “How about we stay for a couple days, and then we’ll come back in a few months for a longer visit.”

“That would be lovely,” her mother said. “And I really owe you a lot, all of you, for getting us out of that nightmare.”

“That was her doing,” Bullard said, pointing at Reeni. “She’s not the easiest person to work with, but she gets there eventually.”

She gasped, then caught his big grin and glared at him. “You’ll pay for that,” she muttered.

“Yeah? I’m still paying for that,” he said, with an eyeroll. “Apparently you’ve not seen the bill to fix my gate.”

She smirked and then couldn’t stand it and broke out laughing. “Yeah, but I bet you won’t do it again.”

“What are you talking about?” her mom asked in confusion.

Reeni smiled and gave her a gentle hug. “It’s all right. Mom. It’s nothing.”

She spent the next few days getting to know her family again and enjoying every bit of it. When the time came to say goodbye, she was honestly choked up about it. Especially seeing her sister with her kids again.

“We’ll come back,” Trevor promised her, and she nodded.

As they boarded Bullard’s private plane again, she asked Trevor, “So did we just shanghai Bullard’s plane?”

“Well, Bullard went home, delivered everybody else, and came back for us, although he does have a couple stops along the way to make.”

Shaking her head in amazement, she got on the plane to start the next leg of their journey.

By the time the journeys in the air were over, they were now driving on land, as Trevor pointed to the castle in the distance. Reeni stared at it with wonder. “My God, it really is a castle.”

“It really is,” he said, with a yawn, and she realized just how tired he was.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered. “It’s been an emotional couple days for me, but, for you, it must have been incredibly boring.”

He laughed. “Not boring at all. You’ve blossomed so much that it’s been a joy to watch.”

She smiled at him. “You do say the nicest things.”

“It’s easy to say nice things to nice people,” he replied.

“So, does that mean, as far as everybody here is concerned, we’re an item?”

“Only if you want to be,” he said.

“I definitely want to be an item.”

He glanced at her and then pulled the rental vehicle off to the side for a moment to stare at her. “This is a hell of a time to announce that.”

“It’s not as if I’ve had time,” she said, with a smile. “We’ve been a little busy.”

“We have, and I’ve definitely tried to keep my distance, so I didn’t cloud up your homecoming with conflicting emotions.”

She shook her head. “Nothing conflicting at all,” she murmured. “Just emotions.”

“It’ll be late when we get in,” he noted. “So no getting to know anybody tonight. We have rooms to ourselves, and we can start getting to know the group tomorrow.”

“And each other?”

“How much getting to know each other did you have in mind?” he asked, chuckling.

Once she realized her father would no longer be in her life, her focus on self-preservation abated to be replaced by this edginess. More and more she wanted to be here with him. “All of it,” she stated. “I want it all. I want a relationship. I want permanency, and I want forever.” She watched as the breath caught in the back of his throat. She nodded. “You weren’t expecting that, were you?”

“Nope, but I am nothing if not adaptable.”

She grinned. “That’s good because you better get us someplace where we can have some alone time. I think we need it.”

“We can hole up at a hotel that’s not very far from here, if you want. It’s located between here and the castle. We could spend a day or two there.”

“That’s perfect,” she said, nodding. “It’s perfect. We need a couple days just for ourselves.”

Before long, he pulled into the hotel and signed up for the first night. As they got into the small room, she looked around and smiled. “I love it. It’s so quaint.” Indeed, it was. The four-poster bed came with heavy curtains hanging around it. “This is almost like a castle.”

“The castle is only a few minutes from here, and we can still go there, if you rather.”

“No, we need some time to ourselves first,” she murmured. “Can you let Terk know?”

“We won’t need to,” he muttered, with a dry tone. “He already knows.”

She looked at him and smiled. “Good, that saves us a lot of time on explanations.”

As soon as he turned around and put his phone and car keys down, she asked him, “Unless you want to go.”

“No.”

“Will you be embarrassed?”

He looked at her. “Sweetheart, we’ll have our own room together, the two of us, at his place. There’s no embarrassment.”

“Oh.” Her eyes widened. “Why didn’t you tell me that?”

“Because you’re the one who wanted time alone, and I’m good with that too.” He opened his arms, and she raced into them. “Having a little bit of time to ourselves is not a problem. When we first arrive, it won’t necessarily be very private, not with getting to know everybody and what they can all do.”

“I didn’t even think of that,” she muttered, pulling back and looking at him. “Do they all have… abilities ?”

“Yes.” Trevor smiled. “Some of them are pretty wild.”

She grinned. “I can’t wait.”

He lowered his head and whispered, “You’ll have to for now, at least until the morning.”

She felt the heat from his lips and that whole sense of relief—not only for having this whole mess over with but also having time with him. To have a whole night with him was beyond imaginable, and to think that they had a lifetime ahead of them was something she couldn’t even begin to dream of.

He lifted his head and smiled. “Yes, it’s time for us and whatever we want to make it.”

She smiled, tears in her eyes. Then she watched as the concern drifted through his gaze. She shook her head. “They’re happy tears.”

“If you say so. I’m not too sure about this whole happy-tears thing.”

She chuckled. “It’s all good.” She grabbed her T-shirt from behind her head and quickly pulled it off. She thought nothing of it and just tossed it to the ground.

His eyes widened. “It’s that way, huh ?”

“Definitely,” she murmured. “I wasn’t kidding when I said that we needed to find some time for ourselves,” she noted. “I didn’t really want to attack you the minute we walked into the castle.”

He burst out into delighted laughter, even as he stripped as fast as she did. She still beat him and stood there in front of him in nothing but socks. He looked down at the socks, and a huge grin crossed his face. Shaking her head, she quickly pulled them off and tossed them to the side as well. She walked to the bed, flipped back all the covers, got in and stretched out, with her arms wide open.

“Sweetheart, you go from zero to sixty in a matter of seconds,” he murmured, as he joined her in the bed.

“That’s okay. I’m hoping you’re a bit of a speed demon too, at least for our first time.”

“Damn right,” he muttered, “but then we’ll have all night to go around this track, time and time again.”

She gave up even trying to talk, pulling his heavy, warm, muscled body down atop hers, her thighs opening wide, as she gripped him hard around the hips. She felt her body already opening for him, something she had wanted so badly but hadn’t even allowed herself to consider.

She hugged him tightly and rolled him over, and she sat atop him. His gaze went wide. She continued to watch his facial expressions, as his hands covered her breasts, and her hands held them there. She slowly lowered herself onto his erection, shuddering with joy as he filled her to the top. Just as she seated herself, he arched deep within her, lifting her completely off the bed. She cried out as her body exploded at the unexpected push.

By the time her own emotions had eased somewhat, she looked down at him and whispered, “Oh boy.”

“Yeah, oh boy,” he repeated. “It’ll be one of those nights.”

He started to move, but she told him to be still. She leaned forward and started to move. It took them seconds to sync, and then she was driving just as hard and as fast as she could, especially now that she knew what was waiting for her. Soon he collapsed beneath her, as she followed him once again into the abyss.

*

When Reeni woke up the next morning, her body was sore and achy but warm, held deep within Trevor’s arms. His breathing was slow and steady beneath her ear. She lifted her head and looked up at him and saw that he was smiling at her.

“Hey,” he greeted her, sliding down a little lower to give her a good morning kiss. “You okay?”

“A little achy,” she admitted, with a cheeky grin, “but I earned it.”

He chuckled. “It was a little rough at times.”

“No, I wouldn’t call it rough,” she corrected, “but a very active night. I don’t think we got much sleep.” She grinned up at him. “But what we got was that time together that I desperately needed. Now my suggestion is a shower and then maybe hit the castle for breakfast. I have visions of a huge dining room table laden with food.” She rubbed her tummy. “By the way, sex makes me hungry.”

He groaned and then laughed as he got out of bed, picked her up in his arms, and carried her through to the bathroom, where he turned on the shower. “Sweetheart, any appetite you’ve got, I am more than happy to satisfy.”

He placed her under the water and gave her a deep soul-searching kiss, before grabbing the shampoo. “We have all the time in the world, and no matter what time or what place,” he whispered leaning into her, “I’ll always be there for you.” He gave her the tenderest of kisses on her nose, on her chin, and then finally on her lips, bringing tears to her eyes.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered, “Thank God, because I’ll never let you go.”