by Marilyn Lee
Soul Mates
Marilyn Lee
Prologue
“Trey! Trey, help me! Please!”
Her screams for him shattered the still of the night and sent Trey Brandauer bolting up in bed from a deep sleep. He tossed the bed covers aside, nearly tripping in his haste to get out of bed and rush to the window.
His room overlooked the back road leading to the slave quarters. Looking out the window, he saw his father’s overseer, Joshua Wilton astride his big stallion. A small slender figure sat in front of him on the horse with her face turned up towards the house.
Trey’s heart thumped with fear as he recognized the female’s beautiful dark skin. The sweet smile he’d never been able to resist was missing. Her brown eyes held a look of fear.
“Carlee!”
When she saw him, she reached out with a trembling hand. “Trey! Please help me!”
Trey tossed the window open and leaned out. “Wilton! What are you doing with her on your horse?”
The overseer cast a brief glance in Trey’s direction before he brought his riding crop down hard on the horse’s flank, sending the animal into a fast trot.
Trey whirled away from the window and quickly pulled on his trousers. Running from his room and down the hall, he leapt down the stairs. Surprised to find it unbolted, Trey yanked open the side door. He rushed onto the side veranda. The stable was behind the house. He prayed that he could get his horse, Danton, saddled and on the road in time to rescue Carlee.
He could still hear her calling out to him. “Trey! Please help me, Trey!”
“I’m coming, Carlee. I’m coming!”
He jumped off the veranda and ran towards the stables, ignoring the pain as his bare feet encountered various bits of stones. The big doors were open. He rushed inside and collided with a tall, well-built man exiting the stables.
The collision with his father sent him sprawling onto his back. “Father!” He scrambled to his knees and grabbed his father’s legs. “Wilton has Carlee! He’s taking her away! You must stop him!”
His father didn’t respond.
Bounding to his feet, Trey ran for his horse. He had his saddle in his hands when his father turned him around.
One look in his father’s eyes and he knew why the side door had been unbolted in the middle of the night.
“He’s taking her with your permission, Father?”
“Yes.”
Trey swallowed a wave of rage at the terse word from his father. “Well not with mine!” He jerked away and tossed his saddle aside, deciding to ride bareback. Before he could mount his horse, his father grabbed him and pushed him against the side of the stall. He could no longer hear Carlee’s cries. His heart thundered and fear tightened his throat. “Get out of my way, Father!”
“I sold her, Trey.”
“Sold her? But you gave her to me! You can’t sell her. She’s mine!”
His father’s hands tightened on his upper arms, holding him still. “That happened when you were seven and I never expected you to fall for her. In this family, we do not bed our slaves, boy!”
His heart sank. His mother had not kept her word. She had told his father about seeing him kissing Carlee the previous week. “I know that, Father, and I have not bedded her! I give you my word!”
“And I believe you, Trey. We Brandauers are not known for being liars.”
He tried to pull away. “Then let me go and get her. She’s mine. I will not have her sold away from me and her family.”
“She is already sold. I believe that you haven’t touched her, but I have seen the way you two look at each other. You are no longer children, Trey. I can’t allow you to father children with her.”
He sucked in a shuddering breath. At seventeen, he longed to discover sex with the fifteen-year-old Carlee. Still, he'd never gone beyond an occasional hug or a rare, brief peck at her sweet lips. He hadn’t even dared touch her breasts. The temptation had been difficult to resist since he had inadvertently seen her sleek, nude body as she had bathed in the pond deep in the woods early one morning.
He had longed to strip and join her. The thought of seeing the hurt and confusion in her brown eyes if he betrayed her trust had been enough to cool his passions. He had forced himself to steal quietly away instead.
“Please, Father. I promise…I give you my word. I will not touch her! Just please don’t sell her!”
“It wasn’t an easy decision, Trey, but it was a necessary one. I’ve made sure she’s going to a good home where she’ll be treated properly.” His father reached in his pocket and produced a large sack filled with bills. “This is yours…for her sale.”
The wall of rage consumed him. He jerked away from his father, slapped the sack out of his hand, placed his hands against his father’s chest, and pushed as hard as he could.
Taken by surprise, his father stumbled backwards and fell.
Trey turned and jumped onto Danton’s back, wheeled him around, sent him jumping over his father’s body, and galloping out into the night.
He rode Danton hard and fast, ignoring his father’s outraged shouts for him to return. He knew he was in more trouble than he’d ever been before for having shoved his father. Nevertheless, he had to save Carlee. After what seemed like an eternity, he heard soft wails that he knew belonged to her.
“Carlee! I’m coming!” he called.
“Trey! Oh, Trey!” He heard the relief in her voice. “I knew you would save me, Trey.”
He rode low over Danton’s back, taking a curve in the road quickly. He spotted Wilton, at least thirty or forty yards in front of him.
He dug his heels into Danton’s flanks and urged him on. Danton was a better horse than the one ridden by Wilton. Elation filled Trey. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do after he rescued her, but he was only moments away from getting her back.
He would worry about the consequences later.
Danton steadily closed the distance between him and Wilton. Soon, he would be close enough to reach out and snatch Carlee off Wilton’s horse. He heard the sound of a galloping horse behind him.
“Trey! Come back here now or there will be hell to pay!”
He cast a quick glance over his shoulder.
His father charged after him, astride the only stallion in the county capable of outrunning Danton.
He leaned low over Danton’s back. “You can do it,” he whispered to Danton. “You can outrun Lightning. Just this once, Danton. You can do it for Carlee. Run like the wind, Danton. You can do it.”
Within a few horse lengths of Wilton, Lightning drew even with Danton. His father snatched him off Danton’s back and onto Lightning’s. Danton continued running as his father pulled on Lightning’s reins, urging him to an abrupt stop.
Trey struggled to be free. “Let me go! Please!” Although he was strong, his father was bigger and far stronger. His father’s arms tightened around him, immobilizing him.
Trey watched Wilton’s horse disappear around a bend in the road. “No! Carlee! Carlee, I’ll find you. I promise. I swear. No matter how long it takes, I’ll find and rescue you! And when I do I will never leave you again!”
“Trey! I’ll wait…I’ll wait for you to come, Trey!”
His father wheeled Lightning around and sent him galloping back towards the house Trey would never think of as home again. He slumped back against his father, bitter tears streaming down his cheeks. “Let me go rescue her, Father, or I swear I will never forgive you.”
“I know this hurts now, Trey, but this is for the best. I need you to understand why I had to do this.”
“You didn’t. I would have kept my word.”
“I know you have good intentions, boy, but you would be sneaking into her bed eventually. Do you understand? “
&
nbsp; “I won’t ever forgive you for this, Father.”
His father pulled up his horse and turned his face up to his. He saw something he’d never seen before—tears in his father’s eyes. “I didn’t do this easily, Trey. I know this hurts you and it hurts me, but I had to do it. I had to. You’ll forgive me because it was done out of love.”
He shook his head. “No. I won’t ever forgive you for this. You don’t know what you’ve done. I’ll never be happy again if I don’t find her. You have to tell me where she’s going.”
“I know it hurts boy, but in time you’ll forget her and move on. You’ll marry and have children and be happy.”
“I’ll never be happy without her. Never. And I will never forgive you for this.”
“Time has a way of healing all wounds, Trey.”
“Time will never heal this wound. Nor will I ever forgive you or Mother.”
* * * * *
Several weeks later, as Trey lay in bed, wallowing in misery and pain, a hand touched his shoulder. He bolted into a sitting position.
A figure stood by his bed.
He jumped out of the bed on the other side.
The moonlight streaming in through the windows revealed a tall female with short, dark hair, smooth brown skin, and startling gray eyes. He stared at her and then at the door his father had bolted on the outside. His bedroom was on the second floor. The windows had been nailed shut from the outside to keep him in his room.
“How did you get in here?”
Her warm, sultry voice held a comforting quality that was strangely compelling. “I have my ways, Trey Brandauer.”
“What do you want?”
“I was drawn here.”
“By what?”
“Your pain. It cries out for relief.” She extended her hand. “Throw your pain and grief on me and I will carry them for you.”
“Who are you?”
“I am Margolis Cheyenne of the Shadow Mountain Cheyennes.”
“Shadow Mountain? I’ve never heard of a Shadow Mountain.”
“Shadow Mountain is far from here.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I’ve come to ease your burden.”
“How?”
Walking around the bed, she took his hand in hers. “I will make you forget her.”
He shook his head, yanking his hand away. “I don’t want to forget her! I want to find and save her.”
She reclaimed his hand, placing her other hand at his left temple. “Until then, I offer you release from your pain. Throw your burden on me, Trey. Forget…forget.”
“No! I promised her I’d find and rescue her!”
“That will take far longer than either of you know.”
He narrowed his gaze. “If you know that you must know where she is. Please tell me where she is.”
“I don’t know where she is.”
Why would no one help him? He jerked away from her. “Then how do you know how long finding her will take? How do you even know I will find her?”
“There are things I deduce and some I know. I know that your present pain is too great a burden for such young shoulders. The emotional cord between you two is strong but flexible. Stretched taut, it will yield but not snap. It will survive until you find her again—no matter how long that takes. For now, you need to forget. Throw your burden on me. I will bear it for you until you’re ready to remember. For now, let the healing begin. Forget…forget…”
“I don’t want…” His lids drooped and he felt incredibly tired. She placed an arm around his waist, urging him towards the bed. He fell across it. For the first time in weeks, he slept, his dreams free of nightmares.
In the morning, Trey woke, shocked to find his bedroom door appeared to be bolted from the outside. When his father entered in response to his banging on the door and asked him if he were prepared to be reasonable and at least try to forget Carlee, Trey stared at him.
“Who’s Carlee?”
Chapter One
“Sugar, what you need is a man,preferably one who’s wicked and skillful in bed. One who will take some of that chill off.”
The woman seated on the opposite side of Carlee Vanleer’s desk had long dark hair and a beautiful, mocha complexion. Carlee sighed. Sometimes Erinae managed to get on her last frayed nerve. If anyone should understand that she wasn’t interested in jumping into bed with every Tom, Dick, and Harry who winked at her, it should be her best friend.
“What chill?” She spoke in a cool voice. She knew the staff of the design firm she and Erinae had recently founded thought of her as the Ice Queen. While she could shrug off their employees’jokes, Erinae’s remarks stung.
“Come on, Carlee. It’s not normal for a single, beautiful, talented woman not to have a man in her life.”
“Erinae—”
“It’s not normal—especially when men are practically begging for a little of your time and attention.”
Carlee sighed again and ran a hand through her hair, which she wore short and natural. All her life she had known she was different from most women. She supposed the people who thought her cold had valid grounds for thinking that way. She’d never been able to form a lasting, intimate relationship with a man.
More than one spurned lover had accused her of being a lesbian. Even Erinae, a friend since grade school, sometimes questioned her closely about her sexual preference.
“I don’t have time for guys whose only interest is getting me in bed and then dumping me once the thrill is gone.”
Erinae pointed an accusing finger at her. “Okay. I have you now. What about Sam Creekland? Look me in the eye and tell me he was only interested in getting you into bed.”
An ache sliced through her. She shook her head, quickly dismissing thoughts of Sam, sweet, sexy Sam.
“That brother had everything. He was handsome, successful, intelligent, articulate, and he wined and dined you for nearly two years. So what do you do? Give him the bum’s rush when he wanted to get serious.”
A picture of a man with an attractive ebony face, smiling brown eyes, and a deep, warm voice danced along her memory. Sam had been wonderful. She had tried her best not to fall in love with him. Even when she had, there had been an endless ache in her heart for another love she couldn’t forget. Although her dream lover had remained faceless, he had a grip on her heart from which she couldn’t shake loose.
Sam had been ideal in every way and yet she had been unable to surrender the most intimate piece of her heart to him. But she had loved him. Maybe she always would, just as she feared she’d always care for the nameless and faceless lover who had haunted her dreams for years and made it impossible to fully love another man.
She picked up a pen from her desktop and tapped it against her right cheek. “Sam is a wonderful guy.”
“And?”
“And?” Carlee shrugged. “And any woman would be blessed to have him fall for her,” she admitted.
“You’re darn right such a woman would be blessed. So why’d you let him get away?”
She shook her head. “I don’t really know.”
“And neither do I. So don’t give me any flack.”
Carlee grimaced. “Okay. What’s it going to cost me to get you off my back this time?”
Erinae widened her eyes. “Why Lee, whatever do you mean?”
Carlee cast her gaze ceilingward. “Can the innocent act and spit it out. What are you about to drag me into now?”
Erinae grinned. “Okay, but hear me out before you say no.”
She slumped back in her chair. Since Erinae’s divorce from her college sweetheart two years earlier, she had dragged Carlee to every singles’ event she could find. Erinae had enjoyed being married and was determined to remarry. And she was determined to pull Carlee kicking and screaming down the aisle with her when she made the trip again.
“What is it this time, Erinae?”
“Nothing too stressful.”
“I’ll be the judge of that. What is i
t?”
“A Fantasy Week at a lodge in the Pocono Mountains.”
“A Fantasy Week?” Carlee frowned, shaking her head. “I don’t think so. I mean, no.”
“You promised to hear me out, Lee.”
“Yes, but I didn’t say I’d go.”
“Oh, you’ll go all right, if you know what’s good for you,” Erinae threatened, her eyes narrowing.
Carlee frowned. “I don’t have time to take a week off.” She flipped several pages of the open appointment book on her desk. “Do you know how many appointments I’d have to break to go?”
“Yes, but you don’t, since I haven’t said when we’re going. And trust me, Lee, we are going.”
“We can’t both be off at the same time. If we don’t get this business up and running soon, we are going to have to think about going back to work for other people. And you know how we both hated that.”
Erinae nodded. “Yes. That’s why we’ve both been working our tails off. We are not going back to grinding it out for anyone else, Lee. All we need is one big account to get us the name recognition we deserve. But we both need a break.”
“And we’ll get one— after we land a big account.”
“We need to do this now, Lee.”
“Why now?”
Erinae frowned. “I…I don’t know. I just know we need to do this now. I knew that the moment the travel agent told me about this week.”
“What travel agent?”
Erinae shrugged. “It’s strange. I met her while waiting for the train a few weeks ago. We struck up a conversation and the next thing I knew, I’d decided we had to go on this fantasy vacation.”
Carlee frowned. “It’s not like you to allow anyone to influence you.”
Erinae nodded. “I know, but this is something I really want to do and I can’t go by myself.”
“Why not?”
“Because I can’t…all right? I just know we need to go. Are you going to come with me or not?”
“No, I’m not, Erinae.”
“And why not?”
“What am I supposed to do with Danny? You know how he hates it when I go away.”
“You spoil him entirely too much and you’ve allowed him to scare away too many eligible prospects. It’s time he learned to cope with the reality of your needs instead of your always being a slave to his greedy wants.”
