He tried to deny the thought that persisted in his mind but the tortured, defeated look in her eyes made it scream louder in his head. He wanted to shout, throw something and punch, no, pummel the man responsible for her pain until he was nothing but a bloody pulp. He wanted to tear him apart and cause him more pain than he’d caused Loraine. Hell, he too was in pain just watching her suffer.“What do you need from me?” he’d asked, hoping there was some way he could take her pain away, even if it was for the night.She’d crawled toward him and he’d tensed, watching her, keeping his body still. She climbed into his lap and wrapped her arms around his torso. All she wanted was to be held and so he did, holding her tight against him. When she barreled into him, he held her tighter rocking from side to side until he felt her go limp and her breathing became shallow. He put her in bed, intending to sleep on the chaise beside the window but she moved into him when he laid her down, holding t

He heard the whimper first, and then the creaking of wood as it cried under the strain of weight. At first, he thought an animal had somehow found its way into his home, a beach house he had built a few miles away from the resort where his first home, his mother’s home, had once stood. The one bedroom shack that had been his mother’s pride and joy, but for Reno it had been a reminder of his painful past. So he replaced it with a two story, four bedroom home, with floor to ceiling windows for walls in the living room and dining area at the bottom level. He heard the whimper again, but this time it was louder and coming from one of the guestrooms. He climbed off his bed and moved to the door, paying keen attention to the noise again. A few minutes of silence passed and Reno turned around to go back to bed when an ear piercing scream had him rushing out of his room and into the opposite one. It was Loraine’s room. She was thrashing and crying, fighting the man in her nightmare, her body

Reno was dragged out of bed by the beautiful aromas that came from his kitchen. No one had ever used the area before except for the microwave and fridge. Everything that was in the kitchen was put there by the interior decorator he had hired. Even though he knew he was never going to use any of those appliances because he had his meals at the resort or brought from the resort kitchen, he still wanted it. He wanted to know how it felt to have something, not because he needed it but just because he could afford it.Georgia couldn’t cook a lick and he couldn’t trust Riana with any of the appliances, especially the knives, during her depression. So who was cooking? Loraine or Melody? Though they were the only two possible choices, he was a little skeptical that either of them even knew what a skillet looked like. Table cutlery sure, they dined like royalty because they were wealthy, but if they knew the difference between a curving knife and a saw was something he dou

Loraine lifted her eyebrow when she realized something. “You have a type, don’t you?”“What?” he asked with a completely innocent wide eyed look.“Blonde hair, blue eyed? They probably can’t swim huh, that’s why they need the inflated balloons they carry on their chests? What’s wrong with brunettes or red heads with green eyes?” she leaned forward on the table, “Does the color of my eyes and hair make me your type, Reno?”He pulled at the collar of his shirt. “Why are we discussing this again?”Loraine smiled sweetly at him. “Oh no, it wasn’t a discussion, just an observation. You do know not every goldilocks falls in the dumb blonde category?”Reno raised his hand. “You done eating? I think it’s time to go back to the apartment.”“Aha. Coward.”Reno paid the check and they quietly walked back to their ap

Reno sat on the bed and watched Loraine as she slept, the guilt of what he did ripping him apart. He didn’t even know why he did what he did; he hadn’t been thinking. He needed a distraction from the guilt his nightmare had brought on and Loraine was right there.He’d taken her, fucking her hard without a care for her until the last moment when she cried out his name. He’d realized then what he was doing and with whom and brought it to a quick end, bringing her to release before he found his own. His orgasm had been better than all his encounters before put together. He knew sex with Loraine would be incredible but he never expected that.He’d held her afterwards, and once his ass started to go numb from the cold floor, he carried her to bed and held her as they both slept. And when morning came and he went to take a shower, he realized two things. He hadn’t used a condom and there was blood on his dick.When he saw t