Seduced(10)

“Rafe, wake up.”

The morning light was streaming in through the camper windows, and the pained look on Shane’s face had him instantly sitting up.

“What is it?”

“Maria. She…she didn’t make it, Rafe.”

“No.” If he denied the words his friend was saying, then he could make them untrue.

“I’m sorry, Rafe. I know how much you cared about her.”

Shane had warned Rafe not to get attached, warned him to keep a distance. These people led a different life than they did — had a harsher reality. They were often lost at young ages and in tragic circumstances.

“No.” He denied Shane’s words again.

“I’m sorry, Rafe. The baby died in her womb several days ago. Maria passed during the night from complications. Her husband found her this morning.”

Rafe jumped from the bed and threw on his clothes, needing to see Maria — needing to prove that Shane was wrong. She couldn’t be gone. He rushed to their new home. The home Rafe had worked nonstop to build so she could have her baby there.

Quietly walking inside, Rafe found Pablo on his knees by the bed, a bed Rafe had specially brought in for just them. Pablo looked up, tracks of tears on his face, but tears that had obviously dried hours ago. The broken man had no more left inside him.

“She left me,” Pablo whimpered, his hands repeatedly stroking his cold wife’s face. “She left me alone. Our baby and Maria are gone,” he choked out, his voice broken, his spirit gone.

“No,” Rafe whispered, seemingly unable to say anything else.

“I can’t live without her. She’s my world. She’s my everything. How can I go on?”

The man was looking to Rafe for an answer, and Rafe didn’t know what to say. He didn’t have an answer to give Pablo. Never before had Rafe witnessed someone so utterly broken — so lost — so completely alone.

“Please, Rafe. Give her back to me,” the man begged as if Rafe were capable of saving her. “Please,” Pablo groaned as he turned back toward his wife and laid his head on her still chest.

Rafe stood in the doorway, his own heart broken, unable to move, watching the man hold on to his dead wife. Eventually, the men from the village had to drag the bereaved husband away as he cried out in agony.

That night, Pablo took his own life, leaving a short note. I will be with my wife and child for eternity.

Rafe packed the few possessions he’d brought with him, and he went home. He wouldn’t allow himself to be that broken. He couldn’t. It was time to win back his other half, because he needed Ari. She made him whole.

He didn’t want to be on his hands and knees begging for her when she was forever gone to him. He didn’t want to waste another day. They’d been apart long enough, and he would win her back.





Chapter Four


Lia



Peace at last!

Lia strolled along the shore as the water drifted slowly toward her feet before retreating like a thief escaping into the shadows. Shane was wearing her down, though she’d never admit it to him, or even herself.

He’d been there for two weeks, and he wasn’t giving her a single moment to breathe. The project was starting, materials were being boated in, and she could practically see the luxurious cabins, artfully created to look rustic, arising on the hills in the thick forest.

Paths would be cleared, and suptuous facilities built, and the land would still look untouched. She was proud to be a part of it all.

“Hey, Palazzo, we need to ride over to the mainland.”

Lia slowly turned to find Shane striding toward her in nothing but a pair of slacks that were riding low on his waist. Saliva pooled in her mouth at the sight of his muscular chest flexing in all its golden glory as he moved toward her.

If she hadn’t been so ridiculously attracted to him, none of this would have been difficult. Damned hormones!

“You’re on your own, Grayson. I have work to do,” she replied cooly, turning away, and irritated with herself at how difficult it was to do just that.

“Sorry. I need your help. We have some materials to pick out that you insisted on having final approval on. I can do it myself, though, if you just sign off. You like plaid, right?” he asked with an innocent air.

Her teeth gritting together, Lia glared at him. He knew she hated plaid, but she could easily see him decorating the luxury resort in stomach-wrenching color schemes just to spite her, not even caring that it would cost him millions to replace it all as soon as his point was made. So he would win this round, because she wasn’t going to let that happen.

“Fine. Give me a minute to change and I’ll meet you at the docks.” She’d forced those words through her teeth.