River Jewel Resort Box Set Books 1-4 BOOK BUNDLE

by Madison Sevier

  Opening the matching refrigerator, he couldn’t believe his eyes! “You can’t be serious.”

  Everything he’d been thinking of cooking was inside that metal box. Shelf after shelf of meat; thick ribeye steaks, brats, burger and even chicken sat there just waiting for him to grill them to perfection and eat them. Transparent drawers revealed veggies, cheeses and fruits. The side doors were crammed full of condiments and sauces. His curiosity led him to the many cupboards where he found every type of snack he’d ever craved and even a few new ones he’d never seen but was sure to love. His sweet tooth rivaled that of a woman with PMS. He wasn’t ashamed of it, he loved sweet and salty things, mostly at the same time. Thanks to great genes, he didn’t have to worry about his weight like some men his age. A few workouts a week and he could maintain his build for years, he already had and he’d never heard any complaints. If the whistles and looks he received from women and men alike were anything to go on, he was pretty sure his abs and ass were quite pleasing to the eye.

  “God, you sound conceited in your own head.”

  Turning around to head back to the living room, Kevin eyed the leather, wrap-around sofa and matching recliner. The rustic brick and wood walls adorned with country décor, reminded him of the beach cabin he’d stayed in with his mother twenty years ago and he couldn’t suppress the other memories as they washed over him and for an instant he was angry. Everywhere he went, he saw her face and he’d let her drive him insane for all these years.

  “Get over it, dude.”

  Talking to himself was part of his normal routine. No one on Earth would ever understand that he’d stayed single all of his life because of a woman he’d met so long ago. A woman who was Maria’s age when he’d met her.

  “Must be why she rattled my nerves. Blonde, thin, adorable and with lips just like my girl.”

  His? Who the fuck was he kidding? Maybe he seriously needed a psychiatrist. There was no way in Hell his behavior could be considered healthy. How many women had he had over the years? Kevin lost track. All that ever mattered was that none of them were her, a woman he had no way of locating, a woman who didn’t even seem to exist outside of his own tattered memories.

  Chapter Two

  She’d found him! It had worked and nothing bad happened. Years of listening to her mother’s warnings about using her abilities for her own personal gain had left her feeling paranoid and lonely. For the past five years, she’d been able to help unite soulmates, but as her twentieth birthday fast approached, she was without one of her own.

  “You can never, ever, under any circumstances use your sight to find your true love.”

  “But why not, Mama? I’ve been given a gift. I should be able to find happiness, the same happiness I help everyone else find.”

  “The backlash from using your gift for personal gain could be dire. The universe is fickle and you never know how she’s going to punish you. Please, please promise me that you’ll never do it. You’ll find true love someday, when it’s time. I promise.”

  Her mother had held her on many occasions while she’d sobbed. Being invited to wedding after wedding, baby shower after baby shower had become bittersweet. All she wanted was someone of her own to love. For so long, her gift felt more like a curse than a blessing! What good was it if she had to be unhappy while everyone else could be held at night, kissed in the mornings and made love to? It was so unfair!

  She’d reached the breaking point when her best friend moved away with her high school sweetheart turned fiancé. She decided then and there that she didn’t care about the consequences. No matter what, she’d find her soulmate. And it was long before she did.

  After using her powers to cast a spell to locate him, she’d convinced her parents they should head to a beachside community in South Carolina for Labor Day weekend. He was there, just as she’d seen with her mind’s eye. The young man with dark brown hair and brilliant green eyes, the one she was meant to spend her life with. She knew with every ounce of her being he was everything she’d ever dreamed of and more! Their meeting was magical, movie-like and love at first sight. The moment their eyes had met, she knew her visions were true and he was the one for her. Their destiny was written in the stars they laid beneath on the white sand beach.

  They talked and laughed for hours on the beach that night before heading back to his mother’s cabin where they’d made love over and over again. Neither of them ever divulging their names. Of course, she didn’t have to ask his because their souls spoke to each other in a language only they could understand. All night long, he touched her, kissed her with such incredibly strong yet gentle hands and whispered to her again and again; “Mine. Forever mine.”

  Not once had she allowed her mother’s warnings to infiltrate her magical rendezvous, but when the time to leave came and she’d promised to call him, she wondered how on Earth she’d explain where she’d spent the weekend. They’d know. It would be obvious to both of them that she’d used her gift and there’d be trouble. Although twenty years old, her parents were extremely over-protective of her. Ever since her abilities had first appeared, she’d basically been in a prison of sorts and sometimes, it felt like she were being punished for being born.

  Walking back to her parents’ beach cabin, she’d tried to convince herself that she’d done nothing to deserve this so-called gift and she didn’t even want it. Why was she even chosen? She was a freak! Making things appear out of thin air for complete strangers, bringing two hearts together and being able to give them anything they could ever dream of was insane! She was done. Maybe the universe would simply take her powers away and she prayed that would be the case.

  “It means nothing to me. Take it all from me. I don’t care. I just want to be happy like everyone else!” She shook her hands at the sky, begging for her life to change.

  Approaching the steps to her parent’s rental, she could hear their raised voices and shivers ran up and down her spine.

  “Where is she?”

  “I don’t know. She never came home last night.” Her mother’s soft cries could be heard from the landing where she stood listening. She’d never meant to make them fight. She was just having some fun, finding her true love. They’d have to understand.

  “You’d better hope she hasn’t done anything stupid! This is all your fault. What was I thinking when I agreed to this marriage? I live in a freak show!”

  Her father’s loud, hateful words hit her like a two-ton weight.

  “James, you knew exactly what you were agreeing to. Don’t act like you’re a victim in all of this. We both know that’s not the case.” She could feel her mother’s voice change; icy, dripping with venom. Closer she crept up the steps to the front door where her parents could be seen through the screen door. Her mother’s steel gaze burning virtual holes into her father.

  Her first thought had been to lie. March right in there and stop them before it went any further. They were fighting about her again. It was always about her. Some gift!

  Opening the wooden screen door, pretending she hadn’t heard them arguing, she called “I’m back. Mama? Dad?”

  Her father came rushing out of the back room, followed by her mother.

  “Where have you been?” He barked, anger flaring in his eyes.

  “You can see she’s perfectly fine and she’s an adult. Calm down and lower your voice.” Again, with a look, her mother silenced him.

  “Now, where were you, sweetheart? We’ve been so worried about you. Let me get a look at you.” She held her arms wide and she stepped into the safe harbor her mother had always been.

  “I’m fine. See?”

  When she leaned out of her mother’s loving embrace, their eyes met and she knew there’d be no way to lie. Her aloof façade was no match for her mother’s own gift. As hard as she’s tried, the joy and love she felt inside was too much to hide. Her mother knew everything without her daughter saying a word.

  “No.” Her mother’s hands flew to her face, covering
her mouth and cheeks as she stared in disbelief at her only daughter.

  “Mama? It’s okay. Nothing bad happened. I’m here. I’m safe and I found him. I knew I would. You’re going to love him so very much.” Moving towards her mother in an effort to comfort her, prove to her that everything would work out, her mother turned from her as she fled to the bedroom, yelling orders behind her as she went.

  “Both of you pack your things. We must leave. Now!”

  “But, Mama…”

  “Do it now!”

  “No. Mama, I’m staying. He’s my true love, I can’t leave him now.”

  “You’ll do no such thing. I said pack your things and you will never speak of this or him again. Go! Now!”

  “But I’m an adult. You can’t tell me what to do any more. You can’t keep me locked away from the world. This is my life.”

  Turning her ice-cold gaze to her daughter, she spat, “You lied to me. You lied and deceived us to come here after I specifically told you to never use your gift for personal gain. You will do exactly as I say. Do you hear me?”

  “But, Mama…”

  Lightning streaked across the sky and a few moments later, thunder crashed, echoing in the distance.

  Fearful, her mother’s eyes grew wide. “We must go. Now. There’s no time to waste. Leave your things.” She grabbed the car keys. “Let’s go. Both of you!”

  Slender and bony fingers dug into her arm, pulling her out the front door. Tossing the keys to her father, her mother scrambled to yank open the car door with her free hand. After shoving her into the backseat, her parents hopped into the front and she’d barely gotten the door closed before her father tore out of the driveway, a cloud of dust billowing behind them. Overhead, the sky grew more ominous by the second. Rain poured, lightning ripped through purple and green clouds as thunder shook the ground. Wind was uprooting smaller trees all around them as her father pressed the accelerator harder to the floor, the engine roaring like a sick beast made of iron.

  “I told you! I knew she would do something like this and destroy us.”

  “Not now! Just get us out of here.”

  “Why can’t you ever listen to me? You think I’m just some dumb cocksucker that you can boss around? You’ve always let her get away with whatever she wanted and now look!” He shook his fist in anger at the sky, smacking it on the driver’s side window.

  Back and forth they argued and screamed as torrents of rain pummeled the car. Her father had to swerve to avoid debris that landed in front of them every few feet and the back and forth motion was making her nauseous.

  “Damn it!”

  “You can’t seriously believe this storm has anything to do with me, Dad. We’re in South Carolina for crap’s sake. Thousands of miles from where we live. They have storms all of the time here.”

  “Not now! You’re just making things worse.”

  “Whatever.” She knew there was nothing she could’ve said to change their minds and it wasn’t the time to add to the drama.

  “Fuck!” Her father yelled as golf ball-sized hail began raining down upon them in torrents. He swerved left to avoid another fallen tree and whipped the steering wheel back to the right with the skill of a race car driver.

  “Watch out!” Her mother pointed at an oncoming car that had swerved into their lane to avoid hitting something on their side of the road. There was no way to see what had been lying in the road, thanks to the rain coated windows.

  “Don’t tell me what to do. This is your fault. If I had put my foot down sooner, none of this would’ve happened!” He screamed, looking at her as he shook a finger at her mother’s face.

  “Dad!”

  All it took was him taking his eyes off of the road for that one second to scream at her mother. A flash of light, her mother screaming, the sound of metal crushing metal, glass imploding as their car careened off the hillside, rolling, rolling until it finally came to a stop in a crumpled heap of twisted metal and broken glass. And then, there was only silence as blackness sucked her under its murky depths.

  Wiping away at the silent tears that always accompanied the memory, she stood and stretched. The memories had been coming more and more frequently and it was taking a toll on her physical health as well as her mental “I’m so sorry, Mama.”

  If only she had listened. She’d still be finding love for others, just like she’d been doing, but she’d have her parents with her. They’d be by her side. Now, she had no one and she never would. After waking up in the hospital only to be told that both of her parents were dead, it became obvious that there was no other choice. She owed it to them to go somewhere far, far away from their hometown, friends and staring eyes to start a new life.

  After receiving a healthy inheritance from her parents’ estate, she’d changed her name and traveled the world for a while. Everywhere she went, people flocked to her, begging for her to help them, somehow knowing she possessed powers. One day, she realized she could do her work from anywhere. Opening a business that catered to the many people in the world looking for their true love was the next logical step. So, she’d built a place to achieve her dreams and she’d only planned on staying there for a while before moving on to another location, repeating the process. However, she’d gone on to expand her business by creating a worldwide dating service and she could do most of her work from the comfort of her home, which was where she’d been for a number of years.

  Deep down, she’d always be the same girl, but to the world, she was someone else and that’s how she preferred it. Home was where, she could pretend that she’d never gone against the rules. Her disobedience had killed her only family and no amount of happiness she’d brought or would bring to others could ever heal that pain or ease the guilt.

  She could only imagine the devastation that would’ve befallen that boy, the boy she’d been so sure was her soulmate. If he’d ever found out what she was, what she could do and that their meeting hadn’t been by fate, he would’ve run for the hills and she wouldn’t have blamed him. Not to mention how much he would’ve hated her for causing the accident that killed her parents. The fact was, she felt so evil and had been begging for her world to change. Running around like a selfish brat had done exactly that. The people she’d met had always loved the things she’d done for them, they believed in her only because they would never know the real her. The façade only fell apart when she was alone.

  What if she had waited patiently like her mother had wanted her to do? Would she have found her soulmate in time? Now, when she looked at the young people who came to her, she saw herself at that age and a pang of jealousy sometimes streaked through her. They were so carefree and sometimes surprisingly stupid, but it was her duty to help them and help them she would until she was no longer needed. Someday, someone else would be stepping into her shoes and as of late, a part of her couldn’t wait for that to happen. On the other hand, where would she go, what would she do when that day came?

  Chapter Three

  Kevin picked up one of the hotel’s fancy, monogrammed towel, drying off. Being on the road for so long, supplied him with miles of dirt on his body in places he’d forgotten existed. Grabbing his clothes, he carried them to his bedroom suite, piling them on the floor beside the closet door.

  “Wonder if this place has laundry services?”

  Looking around the suite, he realized there were many things he hadn’t noticed upon arrival. The room, much larger than it appeared, felt strangely oppressive. Bookshelves full of his favorites, a large sectional sofa, and hand-crafted oak end tables all arranged as though the room were an actual home. His thoughts inevitably traveled to the fact that he didn’t have anyone to share his own home with. Money, stability and plenty of property were his, but he had no one significant in his life.

  Why was it suddenly so difficult for him to make it through a day without thinking about the one thing he didn’t have? Was it his age? Maybe he was having a midlife crisis. Hell, perhaps he needed therapy. Kevin had no i
dea what the right answer was or how to solve his issues, but he knew a drink in the bar just might help him get through the night. Dressing in his spare clothes, he slid on his boots, checked the resort map and grabbed his wallet before heading out the door to the restaurant downstairs.

  The hallways and corridors were intricately decorated with opulent paintings, neutral colored walls and cathedral ceilings adorned with chandeliers every ten feet. Carpeting, a deep shade of red was as thickly padded and immaculate. Soft music, not his style and more classical, played through hidden speakers. Kevin couldn’t see how anyone under the age of thirty or forty could feel comfortable here. If he were younger, he’d say the place had that haunted mansion feel to it. Hell, he was barely forty and he know of at least a hundred other places he’d rather be.

  Large, mirrored elevator doors slid open as he approached them. Taken aback, he peered inside.

  “Hello, Mr. Sunman. Going down?”

  “If that’s where the bar is.”

  “Indeed it is, sir. Step in and we’ll have you there in a jiffy.”

  Jiffy? Kevin rolled his eyes as he gave the bellman a casual once-over. Crisply ironed tuxedo pants, red suit jacket with gold embroidery on the cuffs, white button up shirt, black cummerbund and bowtie. His uniform complete with black shoes, polished enough to reflect the interior lights more than the mirrored walls surrounding them. The guy needed one of those really tall hats they wear at Buckingham Palace and he’d look like a life-sized nutcracker. It took all he had not to bust a gut laughing at his own inner monologue.

  Thankfully, the elevator was fast and he escaped as soon as the doors opened. “Thanks, man.”

  “You bet, Mr. Sunman. Have a wonderful evening. Whenever you’re ready, I’ll be here in a…”