Once Scorched Always Safe

Crazy Women and Time Well Spent

(Rayne)

Parker had been acting weird since lunch. He disappeared to make his phone call, not showing back up again until dinner. He was fidgety, dodged questions she tried to ask him about who was on the phone earlier, then as soon as dinner was over with Parker left with Carlos to do rounds around the town. His behavior was suspicious and extremely out of character for him. He usually was an open book. Rayne was trying not to think he was hiding something from her. What would he hide from her, anyway? They had been through so much together that there wasn’t anything she could think of that he would want to hide.

To get her mind off Parker, she decided a walk in the garden with Bridgette and the baby would be a good idea. Rayne wanted to hear more of the women Bridgette had to send packing when she first arrived. Part of her wanted to find Carlos and have a nice long chat, but from the way he looked at Bridgette, Rayne knew that the man was wildly in love with her. It was the same way that Parker looked at Rayne, how she never saw that when she was hiding her feelings for him is a mystery.

“So, the first one was Sheila, a skinny little bimbo who thought adamantly that she was Carlos’s mate, that she had truly rocked his world with their one–night stand. There were three occasions that she cornered me alone to let me know that I needed to back off her mate or I would get hurt. 1 laughed the first one off as jealousy, the second one off as her being delusional, and slapped her across the face the third time.”

“I thought I finished things with her after that until she let herself into the house one night. We were out going over places in the territory, to give me a tour of the town, so she had plenty of time to pull off what she did.” Bridgette laughed as she recalled that night.

“How naked was she when you guys got home?”

fully naked, with a large red bow tied

Bridgette let out a bark of laughter that startled Tomas. She bounced him a bit until he calmed down, “She was fully n around her waist. Here is the funny part, you think that maybe she was waiting for him on the bed, right?”

“That is the logical place, I am guessing she was somewhere more in your face?” Rayne asked

“The first thing you see when you open then front door is the…”

“The stairs, wow?” Rayne let

t out a low whistle.

“Yes, she was spread eagle in nothing but a red bow and stiletto heels to match the bow.” Bridgette was shaking her head at the memory. “Holy shit! What did you do?” Rayne asked with a chuckle.

“I saw red. I had only known Carlos for a little over three weeks, the first two weeks spent in Jade Moon, as Alec wanted to get to know the man he was sending me home with. The minute I saw him, I knew he would break my heart and not even mean it at all. He was upfront and honest about his during our first week as mates. So, I knew of the many women from his past, but what I didn’t know is that some of them were in his pack, that it would force me to interact with his past liaisons,”

past

“Goodness Bridgette, what did you do to that poor woman?” Rayne asked in annoyance at what Sheila had done.

“I rushed across the foyer, grabbed her by her skinny little neck, and gave her one good punch in the face. I would have done more, but Carlos pulled me off of her. Then 1 spent the rest of the night locked in our room while he slept on the Door in the hall outside the door. He changed all the locks on the house, set up round–the–clock guards at the gate, and roaming patrols around the grounds.”

“Yet there were more who made trouble?”

“There was Frankie, Megan, Delilah, Tracy…. Bridgette listed off women making Rayne cringe and laugh.

“Goodness, that is a lot of women. Was that all you dealt with in the first year?”

“Yes. Then there was Alice, she was the last straw and the most recent, the one that made me leave to go home.” Bridgette looked over at Tomas, then

back to Rayne.

“That was why you w

were in Jade Moon during the attack?” Rayne asked with her

eyes now filled.

filled with sadness.

“Yes, I left to go hom

“What the fuck?”

home after I found Alice in my bed, wearing my lingerie, wrapped around my sleeping mate.”

Crazy Women and Time Wen Spent

“She made it look like that had slept together, but he was fully clothed, and he had not once looked at another woman like that since we met. I knew that they had done nothing, but 1 had just found out I was pregnant, so my anger at the situation sent me packing. He sent those two guards you met to fetch me back, but he couldn’t come himself, which made me stay longer. Bridgette just shook her head.

“I see you worked things out with Carlos,” Rayne cocked her head to the side to just look at Bridgette as they walked.

“Yes, I demanded that he speak to those women he had been with, those that were still in the pack. Then he suggested that we do it together, show them that as their Luna the behavior that they were exhibiting towards their Alpha wouldn’t be tolerated. Alice challenged me to the right of Luna.”

“What the fuck? Who the hell does she think she is?” Rayne yelled.

“I told her I was pregnant with the next Alpha, that as soon as I gave birth, I would gladly meet her challenge, she back down.” Bridgette laughed at the

craziness of the situation.

They spent the next few hours laughing at the antics of the women of Carlos’s past as they walked through the garden. They sat for a while by a fountain in the shape of a crescent moon, but when the baby would get fussy, they would walk again. Soon Tomas was fussing because of hunger, so Bridgette left her to go feed him, Rayne continued to wander the garden until she made it back to the fountain. Sitting down on the little bench, Rayne just watched the water splash, the fireflies roam about. She was missing her deck, the beach at sunset, and her deck chair.

As much as Rayne didn’t want to think about it, her mind wandered back to her oddly acting lover. What was he hiding from her? They owned a bar that was a haven for supernaturals all over the world. There could very well be someone that was requesting his help. Maybe Parker was putting distance between them because of Sebastion’s interference in their lives.

She didn’t want to think of Sebastian, didn’t want him to keep popping into her mind at random times. What if she went to him to demand he accept her rejection? To see for herself if he was a better man than he was five years ago, though even if he was, she didn’t think it would change her mind. She wanted the choice to be hers, not the damn mate bond that the Moon Goddess created to bind them.

“What are you thinking about so hard out here that you let me sneak up on you?” Parker’s voice came from behind her, causing her to jump and let out a little squeal of surprise.

“Damnit, Parker!!” Rayne jumped up, spinning around to face him.

There he stood in faded blue jeans, a white button–up shirt with the top three buttons undone, and a large bouquet of calla lilies in one hand and a little envelope in the other. Shit, he looked sexy wearing those jeans he knew she liked on him. The shirt unbuttoned just enough to show his chest hair. He knew what that look did to her libido. Her arousal was instant.

“Parker, what are you up to?” Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“I realized today that we haven’t decided where we are going next week after we leave here,” Parker waved the little envelope as he handed her the flowers, stepping closer to her with that cocky little smirk on his. His nostrils flaring as he scented her arousal.

Rayne took the lilies with a smile, “Is this why you have been acting odd all day?”

“No, but I will get to that after I tell you the surprise,” Parker gave a sly grin.

was on the phone earlier?”

“Damnit Parker, spit it out! Who w

“Woah now calm down Rayne,” He took a step towards her sliding his

his hand up her back as he pressed her close to him.

then took off with Carlos for most of the night. I thought

“You vanished for hours to deal with a phone call, avoided my questions about it later, ther something was going on with the bar, or with a mission that you needed to go on.”

Parker opened his mouth then closed his as he wrapped her in a hug. “Rayne my love, I was talking to your father the first time about the computer in his office. He asked me not to tell you because it embarrassed him, but since you thought of other things, why not tell you? No, before you ask, he

didn’t break it

Rayne hugged him back as she relaxed, “So everything with the bar is fine?”

“Yes, the bar is just fine, everything is running smoothly. Tals and Wien are doing just as I expected, their twin connection is nice according to your dad Phis, with the increased Far presence in the bar, there have been more coming in as customers, which is a pleasant bonus.”

Rapor pulled back from him to look at the little envelope in his hand, “What is in the envelope Parker?

and Time Well Spent

“That my love is where we are going on t

the second part of our vacation,” He handed her the envelope.

lope out of his hand and ripped it open, then let out a gasp, “Paris? You want to go to Paris?”

Rayne satched the envelope.

“Yes. We have talked about it before, but there was never time. Now with this week free, I figured why the hell not? We can visit our ladies, then roam endlessly around Paris.”

Rayne jumped up, wrapping her legs around his waist, causing them to fall back onto the ground. She fused her mouth to his. He made quick work of their clothes, then spent many hours worshiping her body in the moonlight, making love to her under the stars. Hours later they lay wrapped in each other’s arms as they watched the night sky, the heat of their bodies cooling as the stars twinkled above them.

“You are just full of surprises, aren’t you?” Rayne whispered as she ran her hand over his naked chest.

“Well, I have a few more up my sleeve, but you will have to wait until we are in Paris for that,” He leaned his head down to kiss the top of her head. “Now I think we should go inside and have a movie night and popcom. Then we can talk about those other things that you wanted me to do just now.”

“Ok, let’s go inside. I want to pick the movie though, your taste

ste in films runs to horror movies,

vies, not

a fan-

“Oh, but I love how you squeal when you are afraid of the bad guys, then how you jump in my lap to hide,” Parker laughed as he lifted her so they could get dressed

“Keep that up mister and there will be no lap snuggles for you at all tonight.

He just laughed as they made their way out of the gardens. When they reached the house, she headed to their room while Parker went to find popcorn. When he came to their room, he had the phone to his ear, an angry look on his face. He growled into the phone before he hung up, then tossed his phone on the dresser. Rayne paused in pulling on her Mickey Mouse t–shirt, then quickly pulled it down as he stalked to the window

“Parker, what is going on?”

“There is someone that has asked for our help, but they are using a middleman, they don’t want their identity known until we get to them,” He turned to look at her with a frown on his face.

“When and where?” Rayne asked.

“Well, the good news is we still get to go to France, the bad news is that we won’t get to be going to Paris.”

“Where in France are they?” Rayne was curious now.

“Somewhere near Monaco, closer to the border to Italy than anything. Parker just shook his head.

“When do they want us there?” Rayne walked to him as she asked.

“In two days,” He looked at her with a sad look, “I know you want more time here, and th

that we were

sere trying for two weeks of downtime, but from what

the damn man described, we must get to his client soon.”

“Well fuck me,” She exclaimed as she walked away from him.

“Gladly my love, but we need to pack so we can leave in the morning, but maybe after,” Parker said with a chuckle.

“Smartass!

Can you get t

those tickets exchanged for an earlier flight?”

“Going to work on that after I pack us up.”

“Fine, you do that while I go see if Bridgette or Carlos are awake, I know it is late but they have a baby so one of them may be up with Tomas. I want the details you got from….” She paused so Parker could give her the name of their contact.

“Kade, he is a werewolf,” Parker moved around the room to pack their clothes

“I want the details he gave you when I get back,” Rayne left the room to go let their hosts k

hosts know that they would leave in the moming.

Their vacation was being cut short by someone who needed their help, a mysterious client who asked them to come to France, Ravee was glad that they hat packed their passports. She didn’t like dealing with middlemen, preferring to deal directly with those who wanted then help. Who was this client

sien and Tane Well Spent

that hun i want their identity known until they were face to face? Something about the entire situation didn’t sit well with Rayne, but she knew Parker would want to go help this person with or without her, so bad feeling or not she would go with him.

Who knew what they would find when they got there? Rayne would not let him go into what could be a dangerous situation without her this time. He had gone on missions solo before, coming back a few times with injuries that could have been avoided had he gone with backup. Sometimes the people they helped asked for help too late, fights happened, though Parker had always got their clients to safety.

“So, what was the reason this person is asking g for our help?” Rayne asked as he came back into the room.

bag as she came in, “Something about a rare supernatural, one that most in our world has only heard of but never seen.”

Parker was

p his ba

was zipping up

“Well, that is cryptic.”

“Yes, he said that this creature has hidden what they are for a long time, but recently revealed themselves to someone that they shouldn’t have. Now they are being hunted by The Collectors,” Parker growled at the thought of collectors.

The Collectors were humans who knew of the existence of supernaturals. They would hunt them and sometimes kill them, all to put them in cages on display for other collectors to see. They were an underground network, hiding from human laws and the supernaturals who wanted to free their kind. Rayne and Parker had helped hide a few weretigers after they had escaped a collector a year ago.

This made Rayne angry at the thought of what these humans did to those creatures of the supernatural world. They are not pets. They are not circus animals to be paraded around for those rich enough to see the show. They were actual people that had lives very similar to those of the human world. She would help hide this being, then she would get in touch with their contacts in Europe to see if they could locate this collection and those trying to add to it.

“We need more than just us going into this Parker, who do you think can meet us there?”

“I can call a few p

Parker replied.

people to see who is in the area, but I think they should stay in the shadows, not make their presence known until we alert them.”

“That is a good idea. We can use them for the element of surprise if shit goes sideways. Ok, make those calls while I shower.”

“Awe, but I wanted to join you,” Parker pouted as he picked up his phone to make the calls,

“I think we had enough fun in the garden earlier, Rayne laughed as she headed into the attached bathroom.

Tomorrow was going to be a full day of travel with an unknown at the end of their journey. She hoped that they could help their help. Rayne wanted to track down this collector so they could free the others that needed their help.