by Sweet
What woman could do without the usual makeup supplies? She had bought some neutral colors that would match anyone’s complexion and coloring, figuring that Kiara could add to the collection once she was on her feet and doing her own shopping.
Hollianne did a wonderful job on Kiara’s hair. Since makeup was more Dreama’s area, they switched places seamlessly and Dreama started to apply some makeup to Kiara.
It became apparent rather quickly that the young woman possessed a natural beauty and needed very little enhancement. Her eyes were of the most unusual and gorgeous violet colors that they gave her face a rather ethereal look. Framed by her dark, shiny hair, she looked somewhat unearthly.
Dreama loved adding just the right touches to Kiara’s face before turning her around for Hollianne’s approval. The two women exchanged knowing smiles before Dreama went digging around in the shopping bags once more.
She pulled out a sweater that matched Kiara’s eyes perfectly; along with a pair of jeans, a pair of bikini panties and a matching French cut bra.
“Here you go,” Dreama said as she handed these things to Kiara. “Now go put these on and let’s see how they fit.”
Kiara took the clothes from her with a look of wonder on her face and disappeared into the bathroom.
While she was getting dressed, Dreama and Hollianne stood whispering about just how beautiful this woman was. They tried to keep down their voices because they could tell that Kiara was already rather uncomfortable with the entire situation and all the attention, and the last thing they wanted to do was make her feel even more so.
But they were both thinking the same thing about Kiara. They were very curious about what her story was. Who had hired Graeme to find her and why had she been missing?
Neither of them had wasted any time questioning Graeme about her because they knew from experience that he would tell them what they needed to know at the right time.
Right now, though, it had seemed to be more important for them to help him get her cleaned up. Just then, they heard the bathroom door open and they turned eagerly in her direction.
Then, grins split both their faces.
Kiara was absolutely breathtaking.
Even though she could stand to fill out just a bit, otherwise she was perfect. Her diet had most likely contributed to her too slender body but that could be easily remedied. For the moment, her dark hair flowed well below her shoulders, straight and thick. Her big eyes looked like those on a China doll. She had a porcelain look to her unblemished skin that seemed to accent her full lips. The sweater clung to her body in a flattering manner, and the jeans outlined her shapely hips and backside.
“Wait until Graeme gets a load of her!” Hollianne said in a low voice.
“What?” Kiara asked.
“Oh, she was just reminding me to give you these shoes,” Dreama stepped in deftly as she handed her some stylish casual boots.
“I can’t thank the two of you enough for doing all of this for me,” Kiara said shyly, and rather distractedly. “It’s… it’s been a long time since I’ve been so pampered.”
“Oh, it was all our pleasure, I assure you,” Hollianne replied with eyes twinkling. “Now, let’s take you downstairs. I’m sure Graeme is anxious to talk to you.”
Dreama and Hollianne accompanied Kiara back down the massive staircase. Hollianne took the lead once they reached the bottom step.
They followed her down another hall to the game room where they found Graeme and Ronan playing companionably. In fact, they were so caught up in their game that they didn’t realize anyone had even entered the room.
Dreama discreetly cleared her throat, which made Graeme jump and lose his concentration.
As he turned around, Ronan’s character swiftly defeated Graeme’s.
But Graeme didn’t even notice.
“Graeme, you need to meet the real Kiara,” Hollianne said in a hushed, but very excited voice.
Chapter Six
THE LOOK ON Graeme’s face was priceless.
His mouth gaped open a bit as he took in the bathed and dressed Kiara Shannon. He looked completely stunned.
Hollianne and Dreama furtively exchanged amused looks with each other. Holli was more excited, because she had never seen Graeme react to anything and anyone, especially a woman.
Ronan paused the game and looked up at his sister. The look on his face was quite quizzical as he stood up from his chair and walked over to her. Smiling slightly, he touched her hair and simply stared at her face. Then he nodded as if putting his seal of approval on his sister’s new look.
“Now, Graeme, I think you need to get Ronan spruced up a bit. I took the liberty of buying him a few things that most guys need,” Dreama said. “Don’t worry about Kiara. We’ll keep her company.”
But Graeme seemed rooted to the floor. Never would he have dreamed that she was so lovely underneath all of the dirt and oversized men’s clothes.
Now that she had been cleaned up and was dressed in clothing suited to her size and gender, she looked more beautiful to him than all the beautiful women he had ever seen.
Something low in his body throbbed. And he was shocked to know the reason why.
All he wanted to do at that moment was to take her in his arms and kiss those full, sexy lips.
Rarely did anything or anyone ever captivate Graeme the way that this woman did. He needed to talk to her, to find out more about her and, God help him, he needed to touch her.
He gulped, knowing that if anyone even knew what he was thinking, he would look absurd. He took a deep breath to recover himself.
Think!
And he did. First of all, there was a young teenage boy with, apparently, some very serious problems who needed to be looked after. And the boy was nothing but adorable, even if his smell was not. He should get him cleaned and into new clothes. He should get him to eat more food. He should take care of him, because apparently the one person who has been trying also needed taking care of.
Suddenly, it became vital to Graeme that both Kiara and Ronan come to trust him and let him help them in whatever way they needed.
Turning to Ronan, he motioned for him to follow.
“Come on, Ronan,” he said. “Let’s go get you cleaned up. My friends Dreama and Hollianne have bought you some new clothes. We need to get you dressed so that they can see how cool you look in them.”
Ronan nodded and walked over to Graeme.
Kiara had a look of disbelief on her face, but she remained silent and watched. She seemed ready to jump in at any time if it became necessary. But Ronan only grinned at Graeme, took his hand, and went with him.
“Wow,” Kiara said after they had left the room. Her eyes looked suspiciously bright. “Ronan never takes to anyone, especially strangers.”
“Well, Graeme’s a pretty amazing guy,” Hollianne said. “He sort of has a way with people. Don’t worry. He’ll take good care of Ronan.”
“Why don’t we go make some tea or something?” Dreama said. “We can talk and get acquainted while Graeme takes care of your little brother.”
The three women went into the kitchen and settled down at the dinette table by the bay window. Sipping their tea, they talked about nothing important for a while.
Hollianne explained more about who she and Dreama were. She told Kiara how she had only recently married the love of her life, Erick Angell. They had put off their honeymoon until the first of March. Then they would be gone for the entire month at which time they would come back in plenty of time for Dreama’s wedding in May.
Dreama picked up the thread here and explained that she was engaged to a very close friend of Erick’s and Hollianne’s, Simon Draco. He was a very well-known defense attorney in Florida.
“A lot of people think that we jumped the gun on getting married,” Dreama went on to say. “But when you know you’ve met the right person, what’s the point in waiting?”
Kiara studied them both so solemnly that they thought, at first, they had
upset her in some way. Finally, she sat her cup down and smiled in rather bittersweet fashion.
“You’re both so lucky,” she said in that soft but husky voice of hers. “I always dreamed that I would find love like that. But life just hasn’t worked out that way for me.”
Dreama and Hollianne exchanged a meaningful look before either of them ventured to speak.
“Kiara, we don’t mean to pry,” Hollianne said. “But if you feel up to telling us your story, we’d be happy to listen. You seem like someone who’s had some trouble in your life and we’re both familiar with that. I have had my boyfriend die on me in an accident, only to find out later that he’s alive and it was his twin that died. He lived in Europe now with his real family. He’s only been using me the whole time to hide from loan sharks who were after him.”
Kiara’s eyes went wide. “Oh, but that’s shocking! How did you handle it?”
“I was with Erick by that time and very much in love with him, that’s why it wasn’t that painful and hard anymore. He supported me all the way, as best as he could. And now, we’re married.” Holli was smiling as she showed Kiara her wedding ring. “Dreama here has her own sib story,” she said, looking at Dreama.
“Yes,” Dreama agreed. “My own sister tried to hurt me because she was so jealous of Simon and me. She wanted Simon for herself. She’s sitting in jail right now for attempted murder. My attempted murder.”
“Oh, my god,” Kiara whispered. “That’s horrible!”
“Well, yeah, it is,” Dreama replied. “But don’t feel bad for me. I feel bad that she could do something so horrible it could only lead to her own folly. I’ve accepted and adjusted. I just wanted you to know that Holli and I are no strangers to trouble. We’re certainly not here to judge you in any way. We just want to help you if we can.”
Both Hollianne and Dreama were a little taken aback when Kiara suddenly started to cry.
They certainly hadn’t meant to upset her and immediately set about comforting her.
“No, no,” Kiara sniffed. “You didn’t upset me. It’s just that your kindness to me has been a bit overwhelming. No one has been kind to me in a very long time. I just don’t know how to deal with it.”
“Well, you can be assured that you’ve got two friends in us,” Hollianne declared. “We want to help you anyway that we can. But if you’re not ready to talk to us and tell us what’s going on with you; that’s perfectly okay. You’ll tell us when you’re ready.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you,” Kiara said as she wiped her tears with tissues Holli had taken from somewhere. “I just know that Graeme is going to have questions and I would prefer not to tell this sordid story more than once. I’m still not sure why he came looking for me so I’ve also got some questions of my own.”
“We completely understand, Kiara,” Dreama said. “We’ll wait until Graeme gets Ronan settled and comes back down. Then you can tell us everything.”
“I would really rather do things that way,” Kiara said, looking at the door to the kitchen. “I wonder how Graeme is doing with Ronan.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Hollianne said. “Graeme seems to have this gift of making anyone feel comfortable and at ease. He’ll be down soon.”
Those words had barely left her mouth when they heard Graeme’s voice coming down the hallway. He seemed to be talking to Ronan. As the two of them appeared in the kitchen, Kiara emitted a soft, tremulous sigh when she saw her little brother cleaned and spruced up, and with a huge grin on his face.
He was freshly showered with clean clothes on as well as his hair brushed out of his face. Now it was easy to see that he and Kiara were related as Ronan had the same violet eyes and dark hair. He was tall and lanky, obviously having not filled out yet. But Graeme had done wonders with the boy and he looked quite handsome.
“What do you think of this handsome young man now?” Graeme said enthusiastically as he put a hand on Ronan’s shoulder.
“Wow,” Hollianne and Dreama said in unison.
Kiara looked as if she were going to start crying all over again as she stared at her younger brother.
Indeed, her beautiful eyes were filled with tears that threatened to spill over at any second.
“Ronan, you’re perfect,” she whispered as she smiled at him.
Chapter Seven
THEN KIARA FINALLY looked at Graeme, and it was a look so full of gratefulness.
“Thank you, Graeme. He hasn’t had a chance to really see how handsome he is. It seems that I just keep thanking you for things and I still have no clue why you came looking for me in the first place.”
“Yes, well, we do have a lot of things to discuss,” Graeme replied. “I just thought it would be easier if everyone was well-fed and looking their best. You’ve got to admit that you feel a lot more comfortable than when we got here.”
“Yes, I do admit that,” Kiara said, blushing a little as she remembered how she talked to him before. “And you’ve got such amazing friends. Hollianne and Dreama have made me feel human again.”
“Oh please, call me Holli,” Hollianne said. “All of my friends do, and I can just tell that you are going to become a good friend.”
“I don’t even know why I’m not freaking out anymore!” Kiara said with a laugh as she looked down at her cup of tea. “I was so sure that you were going to hurt us in some way. But then you brought us here to your beautiful home and have treated us like we’re honored guests or something.”
“Well, in a very big way, that’s what you are,” Graeme smiled. “Now let me get this young man settled back in the game room so that you and I can talk. Do you think he’ll be okay playing video games alone for a bit?”
“Yeah, he’ll be fine. Ronan’s been through some bad things and he doesn’t speak because of that,” Kiara said softly as she again gazed protectively at her brother. “But otherwise, he’s pretty much a normal teenage boy.”
“Okay, then. Come with me, Ronan and let’s get you started on that Xbox again. Do you want to keep playing the same game as before or do you want to play something different? I’ve got a pretty impressive collection of games for you to choose from if you get bored.”
Ronan’s face lit up as he followed Graeme back to the game room. He went straight back to the game chair he had been sitting in before and picked up the controller. It seemed that he caught onto things really quickly.
Looking up at Graeme with a question on his face, he waited until Graeme nodded. Then he simply went back to playing his game.
“Well, I guess that takes care of that,” Graeme said. The rest of them laughed with him as they watched Ronan having such a great time.
“Come with me,” Graeme said. “We’re just going to be right next door in my office. We’ll leave the door open in case he needs anything or gets nervous or whatever. We can talk in there. Kiara, do you want us to speak alone first?”
“No,” Kiara replied quickly. “I want Holli and Dreama to hear my story and whatever you’ve got to tell me, they can hear, too.”
“As you wish.This way, Ladies.”
Once they were settled in Graeme’s sumptuous office, he waited until the women had each taken a seat before he settled into his office chair.
Folding his hands on top of his massive antique desk, he looked at Kiara. This was going to be a bit of a delicate matter and he wanted to be sure that he handled it correctly.
So far, he had yet to contact Jefferson Graves. After he had seen the condition of Kiara and Ronan, he felt that it would be better if he had them presentable as well as find out why and how they had ended up living in such atrocious conditions on the street.
Now, he thought he should let Kiara speak first so that he would know how to proceed.
“Kiara, if you don’t mind, I’d like to hear your story first,” he finally said. “I promise you that I’ll answer any questions you have after that because what I’ve got to tell you is going to change your life in a very profound way. But for now, please
tell us what happened to put you and Ronan in this very scary position.”
Kiara nodded slowly. This was it. She was finally going to tell someone what had happened to her and Ronan.
It had been frightening to even think about in the past because she was quite sure that it would have put Ronan and her in danger.
But now, with Graeme here to look after them, she no longer felt afraid. She would tell him everything.
Kiara took a deep breath and looked down at the folded hands in her lap. Everyone else waited for her to speak. They didn’t rush her or press her to start talking. All of them seemed perfectly content to wait until she was ready; a fact for which she was most grateful.
When she did start talking, her voice was rather faint and quiet, but the longer she spoke, the stronger her voice became. By the end of her story, she had become very confident and she was talking in a strong and unwavering voice.
The rest of them were feeling sick at heart for what she and Ronan had gone through.
For a long time, it had just been Kiara and her mother. She never knew who her father was. Renee had taken care of the two of them through working as a bartender. She was pretty and the customers liked her so she made pretty good money.
Kiara wasn’t sure who it was, but at some point Renee had started to see someone. Since Renee never brought him home, Kiara never saw him and she never heard his name mentioned. All she knew is that when she was 12, her mother had become pregnant. Nine months later, she gave birth to Ronan.
Kiara had adored her little brother on sight and quickly took over caring for him. This turned out to be a huge help to Renee because she was so tired a lot of the time. Kiara never minded looking after the dark-haired little boy with eyes so like her own. He was fun-loving, energetic and quite smart. For a time, the three of them lived a simple but happy life together.
