Chapter 2

Loraine vaulted up on her bed breathing heavily, rubbing her wrists. She quickly came awake looking around the sun lit room and inspecting her surroundings to make sure she wasn’t back in that horrid place again.

“Loraine, are you okay?”

“What?” She blinked repeatedly then settled her gaze on Riana, who stood at her bedroom door.

Riana’s thin dark brows knitted together as she stared at her. “Are you alright? I’ve been calling you, trying to wake you for the past five minutes.”

Loraine pulled her lips in a tight smile, drawing slow deep breathes through her nose. Was she alright? Hell no, but she wasn’t going to tell Riana that. The woman had gone through enough nightmares for Loraine to add her own onto her pile.

She nodded, pushing her hair out of her face. “Fine,” she answered breathlessly. “Why?”

Riana’s head reared back. She looked at Loraine with the ‘you’re kidding me’ look and Loraine knew she was forgetting something important.

Riana gave her a sarcastic smile and Loraine was sure whatever it was she was forgetting was about to get her a boot in the ass.

She shrugged. “Oh nothing at all. It’s just that my wedding starts in two hours and my maid of honor is still in bed!”

“Oh shit!” Loraine exclaimed jumping out of bed. “I’m so sorry. Bad hangover. I’ll be showered in five and ready for the glam squad.”

“Fine, just hurry. Guliana doesn’t like to be kept waiting,” she pulled the door shut as she left, leaving Loraine alone with the remnants of her nightmare.

She looked at the bathroom door with apprehension, instinctively wrapping her hand around her right wrist, expecting him to walk through it, her heart racing in her chest.

“This is ridiculous! He’s in Paris and you are in Rome with a security detail that rivals the President of the United States. Get a grip!” she chastised herself, stomping into the bathroom, turning the shower on and quickly getting her toiletry in order.

“Today is a great day…it has to be.” And for more than one reason.

After all the hell they’d been through, Riana and Allan deserved to have their happily ever after.

Two months ago, they both believed the other died when a psycho blew up Allan’s yacht. For two and a half years they believed they’d lost their soul mates and it was complete torture for the rest of them to watch the hell Allan and Riana went through. Riana had it easier or harder, whichever way one decided to look at it, because she had been pregnant with Allan’s child. A rumbustious little girl named Aurora, who’d just celebrated her second birthday on Allan’s new yacht that he named Mia Anima Gemella, meaning my soul mate, with his love for Riana in mind.

Loraine was one of the many who believed the notion of ‘true love’ was for those who lived with their heads in the clouds. But seeing her best friend suffer without the love of her life, and her happiness after they were reunited, it was hard to not believe in true love. But one thing she was sure of, only those who deserved it were blessed with it.

Did she deserve it? Maybe, maybe not… but considering how her life had turned out so far, she was more likely to attract another stalker than a soul mate, one who would truly love her for herself. To be loved like that, by anyone would be… too good to be true and very unlikely to happen to her. Hell, she didn’t get that kind of love from her own parents and grandparents so, yeah very unlikely.

“Cwazi Wowi, Jiana is waiting for you!” her goddaughter yelled, banging her fists on the bathroom door.

Loraine turned off the shower and stepped out. She was a little annoyed Aurora still called her ‘Cwazi Wowi’ but soon she’d have her retribution. The man responsible for that name was giving the bride away and she had a few choice words for him.

Most of the wedding party and guests had arrived a week after the bride and groom because Riana wanted to spend Aurora’s birthday alone, just the three of them. Loraine understood her. Allan had missed Aurora’s first birthday and so many other momentous things. He felt cheated and guilty and Riana thought having some time alone on that special day was what he needed. And she was right.

The man hadn’t stopped smiling since she saw him at the hotel lobby when she arrived. Not even the fact that they were staying in the Rome branch of the hotel that had ruined his life seemed to bother him. It was funny considering he owned it. She remembered he had grumbled for a month when Riana insisted they come back here—something about fighting their demons.

Loraine understood his apprehension. She’d done the same thing when she went back to Paris for culinary school. She even stayed in the same hotel and in the same room, determined to fight her demons. She’d stayed away from Paris for years, even after the danger was long gone, just to avoid those demons. Facing them had been a good idea when she got her acceptance letter from Le Cordon Blue culinary school, but now it was proving to be the biggest mistake of her life.

Thirty months in Paris, in the same hotel, in the same room and she’d survived without missing a wink of sleep. But when she came back to the States, she began to relive that horrible day every single night and she didn’t understand why. And it wasn’t making things easier now that she lived alone.

“Maybe I just need a vacation,” she mumbled to herself as she combed through her wet hair, “Yeah. A month in peace and tranquility, that’s what I need.”

Aurora ran back into Loraine’s room like the little whirlwind she was and grabbed the bottom of Loraine’s robe, separating the front.

She quickly grabbed the two sides together. “Watch it you little hellion or you’ll be seeing more than you’re ready for!”

Aurora kept her hold on the robe, as she pulled Loraine toward the door. “Yody says hawy up!”

Loraine gently pulled her robe free of Aurora’s grip. “Alright I’m coming.”

“Now!”

“Now! Geez Louis!” she yelled back picking Aurora up by the waist and hanging her upside down on her shoulder as she made her way out of the room.

Aurora giggled, chanting, “Pin, pin!”

“No spinning unless you want to clean up the breakfast she just had,” Riana warned.

Loraine quickly put Aurora down. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”